| This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a riveting reification of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party might have gone other ways in picking its new president, who will almost automatically become the country's next prime minister. It might have chosen its first woman leader — Sanae Takaichi. She would also have been a vote for continuity with the policies of the late Shinzo Abe, which are partly credited with getting Japan out of its lost decades of economic malaise. The LDP might also have skewed younger and picked the dashing Shinjiro Koizumi, the 43-year-old son of a previous equally dashing premier. Instead, the party picked Shigeru Ishiba, who has cast himself as the anti-Abe for years. Says Gearoid Reidy: "[W]hile Ishiba might be another Japanese man in his late 60s, he truly represents a different direction for the party. Ishiba is the LDP's consummate outsider, a dissident who has spent his career refusing to acquiesce to orthodoxy." For one, the new leader has favored a utilitarian diplomacy that, in effect, would be a softer Japanese line toward China. Gearoid writes: "Ishiba [is arguing] for 'win-win' diplomacy and seeming to advocate for a more neutral position between Beijing and Washington." That is unlikely to make the US happy. The Biden administration had been counting on Japan to carry much of the weight of an Asia-Pacific alliance to contain the Mainland. Ishiba's more accommodating policy may also not be a realistic response to a China where hostility toward Japan is constantly stoked by social media, a cyber problem that Catherine Thorbecke writes about this week. But the economy may be what's most at stake with Ishiba's ascent. "Stubborn opposition to Abenomics is sometimes the only way to make sense of some of his contradictory policies," says Gearoid. "The rest of his plans are muddy." Meanwhile, the opposition may actually get its act together to confront the LDP, which has ruled Japan almost uninterruptedly since the end of World War II but has been losing much of its credibility with the public. Plummeting polls are what led outgoing prime minister Fumio Kishida to decide to step down, leading to the radical choice of Ishiba as his successor. Known to participate in cosplay, Ishiba once dressed up as Majin Buu from the manga series Dragon Ball, as Gearoid posted on X before his victory. That character has the ability to destroy planets and galactic systems. Ishiba is going to need superpowers as prime minister, but maybe skip the costume. After hinting at it for weeks, Vladimir Putin set out a new set of rules to help Russia decide if it would use nuclear weapons. Making it official, Russia's president said, "We see the modern military and political situation is dynamically changing and we must take this into consideration. Including the emergence of new sources of military threats and risks for Russia and our allies." Marc Champion dissected his threat a couple of weeks ago when it was first bruited and concluded: "while the risk of his launching a nuclear weapon exists, it remains distant." In his column this week, Marc says, "The latest change of doctrine should be seen as an attempt by the Kremlin to restore credibility to nuclear threats that have begun to lose their power. It does nothing to remove the enormous hurdles to actually following through with a nuclear attack." A nuclear strike, Marc wrote, "would bring Russia few if any benefits, but major downsides." In his column this week, Hal Brands says Putin is already escalating — but not in the nuclear way that would bring violent retribution from the US and the rest of its allies. Hal says to expect the "ongoing campaign of sabotage and subversion targeting Europe" to continue. It's a strategy where Putin's fingerprints will be almost untraceable. "The second type of escalation," he says, "involves exacerbating geopolitical turmoil in other conflict zones, particularly the Red Sea." He adds: "The conflict in Ukraine is a global proxy war, a high-stakes conflict that is drawing in rival countries and coalitions from around the world. The effects of wars with global implications rarely stay contained." And then there's what might happen on the ground in Ukraine itself. "Russia is sending out other, more plausible, escalation warnings that have gotten less attention," says Marc. "One, perhaps ironically, came via Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, when he said his intelligence services had discovered that Russia's military was planning to take Ukraine's remaining nuclear power plants offline by bombing them. This could happen." "The techno scene [in Berlin] owes its existence to an historical anomaly. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, there were heaps of abandoned spaces for clubbing to flourish and property was astonishingly cheap. Even in 2008, renting a two-bedroom penthouse just a short walk from [the techno temple] Berghain cost me €800 a month. … Since then, the German capital has become gentrified by more people like me, and for many club-owners, the math no longer adds up." — Chris Bryant in "Berlin's Famous Club Scene Faces the End of the Party."  "The hoped-for rebound in top end goods this year has yet to materialize. … Indeed, concerns are rising that the market has declined further amid a prolonged economic downturn and housing slump. Weak Swiss watch exports to China and Hong Kong; LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE's Sephora laying off 10% of its 4,000-strong workforce in China and sluggish tourism to Europe are all adding to the sense of gloom." — Andrea Felsted in "Luxury Stocks Are Heading to the Clearance Bin." Everybody needs a nanny sometimes. — Adrian Woodridge A new era in intimate warfare. — Andreas Kluth Murdoch's still on the wrong side of Rightmove. — Chris Hughes India's unfriendly neighbors. — Mihir Sharma Why is the Quad silent on Beijing's behavior? — Karishma Vaswani Is Labour over before its time? — Merryn Somerset Webb Here's a touch of showbiz with your stimulus. — Daniel Moss Yikes! Trump and Harris love one thing: Crypto. — Lionel Laurent Just outside the Bloomberg building here in London is Walbrook, a street mainly used by pedestrians and cyclists. But underneath the passage runs a river by the same name that was once a major source of water for the city and a subterranean culvert since the 15th and 16th centuries. Beginning in the 19th century, construction workers have found the remains of hundreds of human skulls. Historians have speculated that they might date from as far back as the Roman period. One set of skulls showed the consequences of blunt force. Could they have been gladiators? There was an amphitheater not far away (in fact, at London's Guildhall, a five-minute walk from where I work). Or were these the heads of rebels executed by Britain's Roman masters? The sheer number of the remains (apparently mostly the top of skulls) could simply be the accumulation of centuries of human habitation in London, washing down from cemeteries and burial grounds in the drainage area that leads into the Thames, which the Walbrook empties into. Cities like Kyoto may exude a kind of exotic antiquity, but London is far older than the ancient Japanese capital — by some seven centuries. And you can actually see skeletal remains right by the river. If you walk to Queenhithe, about 10 minutes from my workplace, you'll find what used to be a dock first built in the 9th century. Right where the Thames washes up is a pile of debris, driftwood, clam and oyster shells but also scapula and thigh bones. These are not human but evidence of the oxen and sheep slaughtered and served in the city, particularly during the Tudor era (and Henry VIII's huge feasts in his upriver palaces).  A river runs by through it. Photograph by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg The Thames by central London isn't as broad as the East River or the Hudson River are in New York City. But the British capital and its defining waterway have so many layers of history and emotion attached to each other. On Sept. 22, it was Thames Day here (coinciding with World Rivers Day) and the city marked it with a gorgeous set of prize-winning photographs along the water. Wander by if you're in the city and by the river. Adrian Wooldridge bewailed UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's talent for gaffes at his Labour Party conference. I'm still processing it...  "It's a gift." Illustration by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg Notes: Please send dressing and feedback to Howard Chua-Eoan at hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net. 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