The Wall Street Journal

President Trump’s vow to intervene against drug smugglers in Colombia widened a U.S. counternarcotics campaign in Latin America that began with military strikes on oceangoing boats.

Thirty-six years after ‘Do the Right Thing,’ the unofficial poet laureate of Brooklyn is as provocative as ever.

Exclusive: Jana Partners has a stake in medical-devices maker Cooper and plans to urge a deal to combine its contact-lens unit with rival Bausch + Lomb.

In Japan, some believe that women who endure childbirth without pain relief enjoy closer bonds with their children. The city government in Tokyo, hoping to increase the number of babies being born, is rolling out subsidies to help pay for epidurals. 🔗 https://on.wsj.com/4obgAvX

Are we in a new tech bubble, this time fueled by excitement about AI? WSJ’s Christopher Mims and Tim Higgins talk to venture capitalist Martin Casado about the industry’s biggest bet in decades. Watch the latest Bold Names episode.

It’s easy enough to spot one of fashion designer Thom Browne’s acolytes in the wild: they’re the folks wearing his shrunken tailoring, complete with a red, white and blue-striped grosgrain ribbon tacked just above the shoulder blades. Now, one lucky Browne super-fan will have the chance to take their fandom a step further, by quite literally wearing Browne’s logo on their body. The fashion designer is one of a number of artists and creative types auctioning off one-of-one designs for tattoos in a sale called “Inked: Tattoos by Contemporary Artists,” held by Joopiter, the digital auction house founded by musician-turned-designer Pharrell Williams. Starting on Oct. 22 and closing on Oct. 31, bidders will compete for tattoos from 16 artists. Technically, they’ll be buying a certificate of the design for a tattoo specifically commissioned for the auction, with the expectation that they’ll get them inked post-sale, and in some cases in places (and to specifications) suggested by the original artist. Each lot carries an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000. Plenty of tattoo artists have auctioned off their time and skills to raise money for causes, but rarely has the streetwise practice collided quite so directly with the world of fine art. Read more: 🔗 https://on.wsj.com/3JdMx7g

Hiring is stalling out in much of America, but in small towns like Tahlequah, Okla., one company is on a recruiting spree. 🔗: https://on.wsj.com/3WenLqF Provalus, which provides big companies with outsourced services such as insurance-claims processing and cybersecurity monitoring, is expanding revenue by 35% to 40% a year with an unusual playbook: investing in rural America. The company has around 250 open jobs now, with hundreds more in the pipeline. Instead of locating its service and technology jobs in a metro area or sending them to countries such as the Philippines, Provalus seeks out small towns, mostly in the South, looking for places where the average individual income hovers around $30,000. There, according to company executives, Provalus finds people who are eager for jobs that will teach them 21st-century skills but who have few opportunities. It is a stab at reversing decades of disinvestment in rural communities, and a model for creating jobs in often-overlooked pockets of the country. “There is an untapped labor market in rural America,” said Chuck Ruggiero, an outsourcing executive who founded Provalus in 2017, years after the 9/11 attacks prompted him to look for ways to create jobs in the U.S. “They have the grit, the grind, and many have the aptitude.”

Rob Cleary’s love of all things Lamborghini started at a young age and developed into a collection including three Countachs, a boat and a miniature for children.

Heard on the Street: For luxury brands trying to win back shoppers, secondhand sellers have become a potential nuisance.

Mellody Hobson explains how the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, due to open next year in South Los Angeles, is “like Star Wars.” Hobson also discusses her marriage to Lucas and fan mail she sent to Oprah Winfrey.⁠ Watch more: https://on.wsj.com/46XCkVT