Good morning and welcome to Friday. Today is National Lasagna Day, which brings us to a riddle: What do you get when you stack one lasagna on top of another?

One lasagna… 😁

In today’s edition:

• 🟣 The US is getting another political party
• 🤔 What actually is a recession?
• 📖👀 Subtitles are so hot rn

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 3.74 minutes to read.

P.S. Some housekeeping: We’ll be short-staffed for Monday’s edition, so we'll be running the Dose of Discussion section on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday next week.

“Always seek out the seed of triumph in every adversity.”

–Augustine "Og" Mandino II (1923-1996)

Dozens of former Republican and Democratic lawmakers are creating a new national political party called the Forward Party, according to a Reuters report published late Wednesday.

🗳 A deeper dive… The new party will initially be led by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and former New Jersey Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

• No stated policy goals have been released yet, but founding members told Reuters the Forward Party’s goal is to provide a third centrist option to the current two-party system, citing a Gallup poll last year that showed a record 62% of US voters believe a third party is needed.

✋ Yes, but: Posing a major challenge is far easier said than done – throughout American history, no third party has ever won a presidential election or majority in either chamber of Congress.

Experts attribute this to a couple main reasons:

• Federal law mandates that all members of Congress are elected from single-member districts, meaning only one person – and one party – represents any single voting district (which naturally resolves into a two-party system, per Duverger's law).
• Democrat and GOP-controlled state legislatures have given themselves automatic pathways to being on the ballot each election, while imposing relatively difficult requirements for all other parties. This entrenchment also makes it difficult for third-party candidates to be admitted into presidential debates, and to drum up enough support to secure the necessary 270 electoral votes.

👀 Looking ahead… Forward Party leaders announced plans to hold a series of events in two dozen major US cities starting Sept. 24, with their first national convention taking place next summer.

+Flash poll: Do you think America needs a third major political party?

Yes

No

Unsure/other

McDonald’s US test of the McPlant burger, which uses meatless patties from Beyond Meat, officially ended as planned, analysts revealed yesterday.

🤔 How’d it go?... Not exactly to infinity and Beyond. While neither company publicized their sales data, analysts from JPMorgan and BTIG both said over the past two months that McPlant sales were coming in at or below the low end of projections, citing internal sources.

• The McPlant burger was initially tested across 600 locations. Neither McDonald’s nor Beyond Meat have revealed any plans for additional experiments or a nationwide launch.

🍔📊 Zoom out: Recent Nielsen data shows retail sales of meat substitutes have stayed roughly flat over the past two years, while the total volume of plant-based meat sold fell 5.8% last year.

• Shares of Beyond Meat fell ~6% on yesterday's news, and have lost nearly 80% of their value over the past year.

The US economy shrunk in the spring for the second consecutive quarter (-0.9%), according to data released yesterday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, officially sending the country into what’s known as a ‘technical recession.’

📉 What does that mean?... America’s gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the market value of all the goods and services produced over a period of time, has declined for two straight quarters. That’s it – the entire definition of a ‘technical recession.’

🤔 Then why is everyone getting so upset?... The White House yesterday pushed back against calling the current economy a recession, with President Biden citing record job growth and foreign business investment as proof that people shouldn’t be using the term.

• "When you're creating almost 400,000 jobs a month, that is not a recession," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a recent interview with NBC News.

✋ On the other hand: Inflation is running at a 40-year high, there are still widespread product shortages, the US trade deficit hit a record high in March, and big box retailers like Walmart have warned profits are shrinking due to changing consumer habits.

📝 So, what’s the actual definition?... The National Bureau of Economic Research, the official arbiter of US recessions, defines it as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months.”

• A committee of eight NBER economists – which consider factors like nonfarm payrolls, industrial production, and retail sales, but not GDP – is in charge of designating the official start and end of all US recessions, usually months after the fact.

😓 Career changes can be nerve-wracking, and if you’ve been in the same role for a long time they don’t get easier.

When making the change, it’s typically more practical to PIVOT our courses just a bit instead of a drastic change. Like finding a role that utilizes a lot of your current skills and expertise!💡

Our friends at Prowess Project want to teach you exactly how to transition into your dream career this coming Monday in a free masterclass on career pivoting.😎

Here’s what’ll be covered:

• How to futurecast your dream life and career and silence negativity
• Discovering the career path right for you
• Planning a return to the workforce on your terms
• Some time-wasters to avoid, as well as some time-savers to turbocharge your career

... and lots more, all in just 5 days!🤯

Prowess Project was launched to help people return to the workforce during the pandemic. Since then, they’ve used a holistic, data-driven approach to land people better jobs ASAP.

Sign up for Prowess’s Career Pivot Masterclass today FREE while spots still remain!⌛

Half of all Americans now watch TV with the subtitles or closed captioning turned on, according to a new survey from e-learning platform Preply.

🤔 A breakdown by generation…

• Gen Z: 72%
• Millennials: 53%
• Gen X: 38%
• Boomers: 35%

📖📺 Driving the numbers: The most common reasons why Americans use subtitles are muddled audio (72%) and hard-to-understand accents (61%). It also appears the rise of streaming has coincided with an increase in subtitles – 62% of Americans say they use subtitles more on streaming services than regular TV.

• When it comes to ‘sub vs. dub,’ nearly ¾ of Americans (74%) said they prefer to use subtitles when watching a foreign-language show – like Squid Game – as opposed to English-language dubbing.
• 76% of Gen Z and millennials watch foreign language TV shows or films, compared to 56% for Gen X and baby boomers, per separate data from audience research company GWI.

👀 Looking ahead… “If entertainment trends of dim lighting, loud background music, and muddled audio continue, it’s likely that the use of subtitles will only increase in popularity,” per Preply.

+By order of the Peaky Blinders: The UK gangster series is the least understandable English-speaking TV show for Americans, according to the study.

• ☝️ A 170-carat pink diamond was recently discovered in Angola; it’s believed to be the largest such gemstone found in 300 years, as only 1 in ~10,000 diamonds are colored pink.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• ✈️ JetBlue formally agreed to buy Spirit Airlines for $3.8 billion in a deal that would create the fifth-largest US airline, if it stands up to regulatory scrutiny.
• 🇨🇳 Chinese officials indicated the country is on track to miss its annual target of 5.5% economic growth this year; they also signaled Beijing will stay the course on its z​​ero-tolerance Covid-prevention measures.
• 📝 Earnings reports: A handful of major US companies reported Q2 earnings yesterday, including Apple, Amazon, and Intel.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 📺 Stranger Things recorded the second-highest weekly viewing total in streaming history for the week of June 27-July 3, per new data from Nielsen.
• 🎤 Beyoncé revealed that her new album Renaissance is the first part of a “three-act project.”
• 😬📱 Instagram is walking back the introduction of some TikTok-like features after facing criticism this week.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🎂 NASA’s 64th birthday is today.
• 🚀 South Korea will launch its first-ever lunar probe from Cape Canaveral, FL, next week.
• 🦠 A fifth HIV patient appears to have been cured, a 59-year-old Spanish woman who’s in long-term remission but still has traces of the virus in her body. (Background)

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 🇷🇺 More than 75,000 Russian troops have died during the war in Ukraine, according to new US estimates.
• 🦠 The city of San Francisco and the state of New York declared health emergencies yesterday over the monkeypox outbreak. (Background)
• 🏛️ The House voted 243-187 in favor of the ~$280 billion Chips and Science Act, which includes $52+ billion in subsidies for US chipmakers; the bill now heads to the desk of President Biden, who’s expected to sign it into law shortly. (From the Left | From the Right | Background)
• ✈️ Frequent flyer/traveler? The ULTI travel bag from CONMIGO has a slide-out cushion, intuitive pocket design, is ultra-durable, water-resistant, under seat-size compliant, converts from briefcase to crossbody, and is backed by a lifetime warranty... plus, shipping is free! Visit CONMIGO.*

*Sponsored post

💬 Quoted… ​​“Those who play with fire will perish by it.”

• President Biden had a more than two-hour phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday, during which Xi warned Biden against establishing relations with Taiwan ahead of a possible visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

+Dig deeper: From the Left | From the Right | From the Center

🛬 Stat of the Day: A majority of the world’s 100 busiest airports had at least 20% of their flights delayed over the past two months, according to flight-data specialist FlightAware, which defines a delay as being 15 or more minutes late on arrival.

🌎 Around the World: Russia built up a network of pro-Kremlin sleeper agents in Ukraine’s military and security agencies ahead of its invasion in February, a newly published Reuters investigation found.

🤯 Did You Know?... Schizophrenics can tickle themselves.

📖 Worth a Read: The Beach Rats → Alta

Bob is an experienced homing pigeon from the northeast UK... but even experienced travelers get lost sometimes. He was on a routine trip from the Channel Islands to his home in Gateshead, when he took a wrong turn somewhere along the route. 

• Bob's owner Alan Todd was worried when his bird didn't make it home by the end of the day as planned. As the days passed, he worried he would never see Bob again. 

✈️ Sweet home... Alan was understandable shocked when, after three weeks of Bob missing, the bird was found in a backyard in Alabama, USA. That's four thousand miles from where his journey began. 

🐦❤️ Bottom line: Other than being a bit dehydrated, Bob made it to Alabama in great health. He's currently being cared for by a shelter while he waits for Dad to make the trek across the Atlantic to bring him home. 

Below are three lists of ingredients. All you have to do is give us the completed dish they make.

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Noodles
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil
• Ground beef
• Tomatoes
• Italian seasoning
• Ricotta
• Mozzarella
• Egg
• Paremsan
• Parsley

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Chocolate chips
• Condensed milk
• Butter

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Potatoes
• White fleshed fish
• Egg
• Sour cream
• Butter
• Onions
• Parsley
• Sea salt
• Pepper
• Dry ground mustard
• Panko breadcrumbs

(keep scrolling for the answers)

👆 Check out the referral prizes you can get just for introducing people you know to little old us. 

What to do: Copy your unique link below, then send it to anyone you think would like the DONUT.

☝️ Recipe #1: Lasagna

✌️ Recipe #2: Fudge

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Fish cakes