Good morning. A quick reminder: clocks will move ahead by one hour early Sunday morning for Daylight Saving time.

In today’s edition:

• 🗳️ Political incumbents beware
• 🏛️ Trump fires DHS Sec. Noem
• 🎓 Worst-paying college majors

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.94-minute read (1,047 words).

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“Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something.”

–Jake the Dog; Adventure Time (2010-2018)

The 2026 midterm season officially kicked off this week with primary elections in Arkansas, North Carolina, and Texas.

And, if the initial results are anything to go by, it appears this year’s midterms will be taking place on shifting political ground for incumbent US lawmakers.

Some sitting members of Congress were forced into runoffs as a result of Tuesday’s elections, while others fell to challengers from within their own parties.

A few examples:

• Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), a 23-year senator who helped shape the modern GOP in Texas, was forced into a runoff by state AG Ken Paxton.
• Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), a four-term incumbent, was defeated in the GOP primary by Texas state Rep. Steve Toth.
• North Carolina state Senate leader Phil Berger (R), who some consider the most powerful lawmaker in the state, trails small-town sheriff challenger Sam Page by just two votes.
• Rep. Al Green (D-TX), who usually doesn’t face any primary opposition, is headed to a May runoff against Rep. Christian Menefee, who became a member of Congress just last month after winning a special election.

These results are especially notable, given that incumbent members of Congress have had near-record-high success rates in recent decades when running for re-election (90%-95%).

A tale of two parties

For Republicans, it appears alignment with President Trump and the current White House administration is paramount. “The candidates who struggled were almost exclusively the ones without [Trump’s] support,” said GOP pollster Landon Wall.

For Democrats, analysts say the results indicate the party’s voting base is hungry for change and ready to oust its veteran members and senior politicians, whom many believe aren’t opposing Trump’s agenda aggressively enough.

However…Some experts have pushed back against drawing any firm conclusions from just a few early races, and suggested the quirks of individual races may have played a bigger role in some places compared to overall voting trends.

Looking ahead…Two other states have primary elections scheduled this month: Mississippi (March 10), and Illinois (March 17). The next elections after that aren’t until May, when 11 states will hold primaries spread across the month.

📊 Flash poll: To all our prospective voters: will incumbency play a significant role in deciding your vote in primary or general elections this midterm season?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other

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Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

💼 The number of jobs added by women in 2025 was nearly 3x higher compared to men, per data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

📊 For the first time in 25 years of Gallup polling, more Americans say they sympathize with Palestinians (41%) than with Israelis (36%).

🏘️ Nearly 20% of property transfers in California last year were through inheritance—a state record since data collection started in 1995, and more than double the national rate (8.8%).

💰 A record $189 billion in global venture capital was invested into startups last month, but 83% of that figure was spent across just three companies: OpenAI, Anthropic, and Waymo.

🎤 Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show drew a combined ~4.1 billion viewers worldwide—across all digital properties—within 24 hours, per management firm Roc Nation.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🛢️ US oil prices rise above $80/barrel for first time in over a year amid ongoing conflict in Iran; US gas prices at the pump have risen ~27 cents since last week to reach $3.25/gallon, as President Trump says “further action to reduce pressure on oil is imminent.”
• ☎️ FCC proposes new rule that would require companies to disclose the location of customer service agents, to offer US-based agents if asked, and to cap the number of overseas calls.
• ✈️ United Airlines updates terms to allow the company to permanently ban passengers who don’t wear headphones while listening to audio and video content on flights.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🚨 Britney Spears arrested in California Wednesday night and released early Thursday morning on suspicion of DUI.
• 🏀 Boston Celtics G Jayson Tatum expected to make his 2025-26 NBA season debut tonight; the 5x All-NBA superstar tore his Achilles in the Eastern Conference Finals nearly 10 months ago.
• 🎭 Netflix acquires InterPositive, Ben Affleck’s filmmaking company that develops AI-powered tools for production teams. | Harry Styles’ fourth studio album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, is out today.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🧠 Microplastics could help explain why rates of Parkinson’s disease have doubled this century, since they disrupt some of the brain processes associated with the disease, new study finds.
• 🧬🤖 Researchers develop new AI model trained on the DNA of 100,000+ species across the entire tree of life; model can accurately identify disease-causing mutations in human genes, and identify patterns that would take humans years to uncover.
• ☄️ There’s zero chance that “city-killer” asteroid 2024 YR4—a 60-meter object once projected to have a tiny chance of hitting Earth—will strike the Moon in late 2032, new data reveals; that’s down from a ~4% chance of hitting the Moon previously.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 🏛️ DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is removed from her position by President Trump, who says he’s nominating Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) as her replacement; Trump was reportedly upset over Noem's performance in congressional hearings this week, particularly over a $200 million DHS ad campaign featuring Noem.
• 🤖🪖 Pentagon formally labels Anthropic a supply-chain risk and says it’ll be cut off from partners who work with the US military; the move, normally reserved for businesses from foreign adversaries, follows disagreement over using Anthropic’s AI for mass domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.
• 🗳️ GOP-led House rejects effort to advance legislation that would have restricted Trump from using further military action in Iran, in largely symbolic vote mostly along party lines.

👆Mark Zuckerberg set a Miami real estate record with the purchase of a $170 million mansion currently under construction in the ultra-exclusive Indian Creek community. Zuck’s new digs reportedly include nine bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, and a wide range of luxury amenities including a movie theater and 1,500-gallon aquarium.

🤔 Did you know? George R.R. Martin, the renowned author who wrote the Game of Thrones books, was the first person ever to purchase a ticket to Comic-Con back in 1964, when Martin was just 15 years old.

📰 Worth a read: IQ scores are falling—but, no, we’re not growing more stupid

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• The 14 worst-paying college majors, 5 years after graduation
• There’s no such thing as a teacup pig. These people found out the hard way
• This Ancient Roman game board was a mystery, until scientists used AI

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How well did you pay attention this week? Find out here.

1. What’s the distance between −8 and 6 on a number line?
2. What number is written as XLII in Roman numerals?
3. A runner completes three laps around a 400-meter track. How far did the runner travel?

🐘 When Wildlife SOS heard about an elderly elephant being mistreated and forced to walk on an injured leg, the org stepped in to get the animal the treatment it needed. The elephant, named Veer for the strength he showed despite the pain, was transported via “elephant ambulance” to a veterinary hospital and sanctuary.

1. 14
2. 42
3. 1,200 meters

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