30 September—You’re getting this daily link on 29 September because the Monitor’s editorial and production staff will be vacationing overnight in beautiful Bridgeport on 30 September following a transcatheter aortic valve replacement on 29 September.

Very briefly, then, let’s marvel at Donald Trump’s artful deals with Xi Jinping. The big deal, of course, is what’s being called China’s generous loan of two giant pandas to the United States. In reality, though it’s not a loan at all, but a lease.

The boilerplate panda diplomacy lease has a ten-year term at a cool million dollars per year for a breeding pair of giant pandas. And if the pandas should produce little ones, China must be paid $400,000 for each cub born. And any giant pandas born here, despite birthright citizenship, legally belong to China and must be deported there by the time they turn four.

So enjoy this chamber version of George Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 1. And we hope to deliver a fresh disquisition on 1 October: