The things that I used to do. Giorgia Meloni can seem a little confusing. For years before becoming Italy’s prime minister in 2022, Meloni often used unforgiving far-right rhetoric about migrants and migration—even claiming there was an international conspiracy to replace ethnic Italians with emigrants from Africa. She congratulated Vladimir Putin for “winning” the Russian presidential election in 2018. All around, she fit well the profile of the European populist-right political leader modeled by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.

Now that she’s in power, however, Meloni has done little to follow up on her anti-immigration rhetoric with anti-immigration policies. She’s continually sided with Ukraine against Russia—even sending weapons to Kyiv. And she’s shown a moderation many, on the left and the right, wouldn’t have expected across other issue areas, as well. What’s she doing?

Today, Leila Simona Talani explores the apparent tensions between Meloni’s words and deeds. Talani says Meloni’s decisions as prime minister are all about keeping the right friends, not making the wrong enemies, and carefully accumulating political power as she goes. And as it’s still early—she’s been prime minister for only two years—it’s still also an open question how the power she might accumulate will reshape her politics and policy decisions.

—Michael Bluhm

Magliabechi’s: Flying Blind. Last week, some 33,000 unionized Boeing workers in Washington state, who’ve been striking since the middle of September, voted by a large majority to reject an offer that included a 35 percent wage hike over four years. Why?

It’s the first major negotiation since 2014, when Boeing froze the company’s traditional pension plan after threatening to move production of the 777 out of the region. Now, workers want to reinstate that pension plan along with a 40 percent raise and guarantees for improved working conditions.

And they know Boeing's leadership needs to end the strike soon. The company has been burning through roughly US$1 billion a month, is now US$53 billion in debt, and is at risk of seeing its investment credit rating downgraded. Production had been lagging behind schedule even before the strike—and that’s having knock-on effects on the rest of the industry: Ryanair, Boeing's largest customer in Europe, says it'll have to cut flights next summer, while Emirates says it has had to make “significant and highly expensive” changes to its fleet programs.

In his 2022 book Flying Blind: The 737 Max Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing, the investigative reporter Peter Robinson explores how Boeing sank into this morass—as its leadership, seeking to maximize short-term profits, reduced testing, cajoled regulators, pressured employees, and outsourced large parts of its production chain. Meanwhile, In 2018 and 2019, two Boeing 737 MAX 8 crashed, killing 346 people.

—Gustav Jönsson

Weather report: Istanbul, Türkiye. Looking out from Galata Bridge on the Istanbul waterfront—Friday, October 18, just after 9:00 AM. A shower passed through overnight, leaving it at a comfortable 14^◦ C (58 ^◦F)—and creating a rainbow over the Bosporus.

A mystery of fewer deaths. More than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The problem is worse in some cities than others: Baltimore, once lauded for its efforts to reduce overdose fatalities, has seen roughly 1,000 die every year over the past six years. Overdose deaths in America had been getting worse for some 20 years, until it suddenly got a lot worse still. In 2019, there were fewer than 70,000 OD deaths; by 2023, there were more than 110,000.

Now, though, that trend might be turning. New CDC stats show that between April 2023 and April 2024, overdose deaths fell by 10 percent—an unprecedented drop. What's behind it? Today, Magdalena Cerdá explores the state of America's opioid epidemic, its decades-long history, and what we know—and don’t know—about the effectiveness of the ways U.S. officials have responded to it.

—Gustav Jönsson

111MHz: ‘Pursuance.’ A brief fragment from an expanded reissue of a 2015 record of glorious, ringing, solo electric guitar from the Polish instrumentalist Raphael Rogiński—Raphael Rogiński, Plays John Coltrane and Langston Hughes. This is a newer track that echoes the melodies of Part 3 of A Love Supreme, extending the idea even further.

—Brendan Hasenstab

Vladimir Putin calls a friend. North Korea has now sent 3,000 soldiers to Russia to support its war against Ukraine, per the U.S. defense secretary on October 23. U.S. intelligence officials say they’ll release satellite photos showing troop ships transporting North Korean soldiers to the Russian port of Vladivostok.

Meanwhile, South Korean intelligence agencies have told their country’s lawmakers that the North plans to send 10,000 soldiers—and has been training a contingent of this size since September. North Korea and Russia deny the claims.

If true, however, the deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia would be a remarkable sign of the strengthening ties among four of the world’s most powerful autocracies—North Korea and Russia, along with China and Iran. North Korea has already sent Moscow millions of artillery shells for the Ukraine war, while Iran has sent some 200 ballistic missiles—having already been working with the Russian military in Syria since 2015. As the war in the Middle East widens to include Iran, Beijing has said it stands with Tehran. What’s going on with all of this?

Recently at The Signal, Lucan Way explored the forces bringing these countries together. Way says the appearance of a tighter alliance among these autocracies is mostly driven by Moscow and its war needs. And while it’s true that the countries do share an interest in undermining U.S. power globally where they can, they otherwise have little in common—making it unclear just how close this partnership will stay after the war ends.

—Michael Bluhm

The bill comes due in Tehran. The war in the Middle East just passed the one-year mark, but now it looks like a whole new war. After 12 months of bombing in Gaza and driving a ground offensive to its border with Egypt—in response to the Hamas attack of October 2023—Israel has now taken the fight to Hezbollah—the militia allied with Hamas and most powerful political party in Lebanon.

In the last month, Israel has blown up the group’s pagers and walkie-talkies, assassinated its longtime leader, invaded Lebanon, and stepped up bombing raids on south Beirut and other Hezbollah bases. Meanwhile, the U.S. bombed Yemen, aiming for suspected weapons stores of the Houthis, another Hamas ally.

Together, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis share the same main source of funds and weapons: Iran. And now, Iran is getting directly engaged in the conflict, itself—after launching 180 or so ballistic missiles at Israel, though Israel intercepted them. What exactly is Iran doing here?

Today, Alex Vatanka looks Iranian strategy in the Middle East—and the momentous decision the Iranian regime is facing on whether to keep attacking and undermining Israel or to compromise and keep itself in power.

—Michael Bluhm

111MHz: ‘Yourcelium.’ James McKeown, who records as Hawksmoor is a modular synth player and composer from Bristol, U.K.—here, on his new album Oneironautics, reaching an almost Tangerine Dream level of orbit.

—Brendan Hasenstab

Magliabechi’s: The Starmer Project. This month, the British press has been taking stock of Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership to mark his first 100 days in office. The reviews have not been overwhelmingly positive. But Starmer’s camp may be troubled less by the views of British newspaper columnists than by those of the British people—among whom Starmer’s popularity has plummeted. He’s now even less liked than the Reform Party leader, Nigel Farage.

Yet Starmer won the election in a landslide. What’s happened since?

A number of explanations are already in circulation:

• Despite the landslide, Starmer was never popular. After fourteen years in power, voters were simply tired of having a Tory in 10 Downing Street, and Rishi Sunak ran his campaign as though he too were tired of it.
• The right-wing vote was split by the Reform Party, meaning Labour got only one-third of the votes but two-thirds of the seats—making it the highest seat-to-vote ratio of any Labour victory ever.
• Starmer has taken several hits since winning. He had to force the Downing Street chief of staff to resign following internal squabbles. The press revealed that his backers had given him more than £100,000 in freebies, including expensive suits. He suspended a few arms export licenses to Israel, irritating its supporters without satisfying its critics. And this summer, racist rioters looking to beat up immigrants overran several British towns: The police charged several hundreds of them, but Britain’s prisons were so overcrowded that Starmer then had to release prisoners early to clear space. Whatever the merits of that decision, it wasn’t the PR Starmer wanted.

Beneath all of this, however, is the reality Starmer has never endeared himself to the left wing of the Labour Party. It’s a reality Oliver Eagleton explores in The Starmer Project: A Journey to the Right. Published in 2022, the book makes the case that Starmer’s once-professed leftist convictions had always been more for public consumption than sincere. And the early days of his premiership may back the argument up.

In his first speech as prime minister, Starmer said the U.K. had “voted decisively for change.” Yet he’s retained the Conservatives’ cap on welfare payments to families with more than two children. He’s restricted winter fuel payments, leaving only the very poorest pensioners still eligible for the benefit. And last week, the Financial Times reported that Labour is looking to keep the Tories’ plan to slash £1.3 billion worth of sickness benefits. That’s a lot of continuity.

—Gustav Jönsson