1. Forget COP26 boasts — decarbonizing takes thousands of tiny, boring steps: Truly green companies redesign their products rather than buying offsets or planting trees. Brooke Masters writes: "Stunts and pious pledges won't save the planet. Manufacturers and retailers must rethink their entire design, manufacturing, and sales processes. Those that have are discovering that change is either very expensive or an unglamorous, iterative process that involves thousands of tiny improvements. Neither makes for good press releases."
2. From TV to the French presidency? Trump inspires a right-wing star: Éric Zemmour, a writer and TV celebrity known for his far-right nationalism, dominates political talk. Zemmour became one of France's top TV celebrities through his punditry on CNews, a Fox News-like channel, even as he was sanctioned twice for inciting racial hatred. Last week he dominated news-media coverage in the kickoff to elections next April.
3. Did Occupy Wall Street mean anything at all? A look at the legacy of the movement that swept the world ten years on. FT writes today, though, that conventional wisdom seems to be that Occupy Wall Street was a failure, a footnote revealing the origins of the phrase "We are the 99 percent." In the US especially, the energy seemed to swing violently to the other end of the spectrum at the end of the Obama years. But looking at the little-known origins of Occupy, you begin to see the great uncorking of deep-seated anger that still resonates today. And with the hindsight of a decade, you start to wonder if Occupy permanently changed the paradigm of protest.
4. 43: Eight months into the job, US President Biden's approval rating has hit a new low of 43 percent, a six-point drop since August. Of all the US presidents elected since World War II, only Donald Trump had a lower approval rating at this stage of his presidency. It sure looks like Biden's honeymoon period is over.
5. US botched the response to COVID-19, McChrystal says: Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal is about to have a new book out, and it has a big takeaway: We're not doing a great job of protecting ourselves. "Risk: A User's Guide," out Oct. 5, takes a look at how leaders approach and handle risk. McChrystal has found they focus more on the likelihood that something will or won't happen and less on what to do when even the unlikely happens.
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