Good morning. In today’s edition:

• 🗳️ What New York’s special election can tell us about November
• 🔍 The US is taking a closer look at drug middlemen
• 🤔 Is recycling just a PR campaign?

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.80-minute read.

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P.P.S. We'll be off on Monday for Presidents' Day. See you back here on Tuesday!

"Success is defined as the ability to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm."

–Unknown

This week, former New York congressman Tom Suozzi (D) won a special election to replace the House seat vacated by the expulsion of former Rep. George Santos (R), flipping the seat from Republican to Democratic control.

Why it matters: The race between Suozzi (53.9%) and his GOP opponent Mazi Melesa Pilip (46.1%) was seen as a bellwether heading into November’s general election. New York’s 3rd Congressional District is one of five in the state that voted for Biden in 2020 and also elected a Republican representative in 2022 (both by a margin of 8%).

Zoom in: Immigration, in particular, emerged as a key election issue between Suozzi and Pilip, with the topic receiving national attention in recent weeks as a potential deal was being negotiated in Congress.

• Suozzi declared his support for stricter US immigration laws, and spoke out publicly in favor of the bipartisan immigration deal that Senate negotiators reached earlier this month.
• Pilip also supported harsher immigration laws and criticized how NYC Democrats have handled the ~180,000 migrants entering the city since 2022, but she called the Senate immigration bill an “absolute nonstarter” that doesn’t go far enough.

The two candidates also focused on abortion throughout the campaign, with Suozzi tying Pilip to some of the more extreme Republican positions against abortion rights. Pilip said she’s personally anti-abortion, but wouldn’t vote for a national ban in Congress.

👀 Looking ahead… Suozzi’s victory means Republicans’ narrow House majority will become even narrower, at 219-213. More broadly, analysts say Suozzi’s campaign strategy of embracing stricter border policies and advocating for abortion access will serve as a blueprint for President Biden and many Democratic congressional candidates ahead of the November election.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, what’s the number one policy issue heading into the November elections?

• Immigration
• Abortion
• Crime/Violence
• Election integrity/Democracy
• High cost of living/Economy in general
• Foreign policy
• Mental health/Addiction
• Other

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🇬🇷🏳️‍🌈 Greece’s parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage. Yesterday’s 176-76 vote makes Greece the first Christian Orthodox-majority country – and 16th EU nation – where gay marriage is legal. The new bill also expands parental rights for same-sex couples, granting them full status as legal guardians and allowing them to adopt children, but stopped short of granting same-sex couples access to assisted reproduction or the option of surrogate pregnancies, and also excludes transgender people.

🇯🇵 Japan is no longer the world’s third-largest economy. Japan’s economy shrunk at an annual rate of 0.4% last quarter, bringing its 2023 GDP to $4.2 trillion – good for fourth place in the world behind Germany ($4.4 trillion). The decrease in Japan’s GDP was mostly attributed to a decline in consumer spending, with local citizens facing a range of issues including a weakening currency and elevated costs for many goods.

🇩🇪 Microsoft announced plans to invest $3.5 billion in Germany for AI development. The tech giant wants to double its AI and cloud computing capacity in Germany, as well as establish a new AI training program that aims to educate 1.2 million people over the next two years. The deal marks Microsoft’s largest single foreign investment, and comes on the heels of similar multi-billion-dollar deals with the UK and Australia last year.

Generic drug shortages hit a 10-year high in recent months, and the US government is channeling Benoit Blanc and trying to figure out why. The FTC and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week said they’re examining the role that two healthcare middlemen – drug wholesalers and group purchasing organizations – play in shortages of generic drugs, which currently account for over 90% of the prescriptions dispensed in America.

First things first: Drug wholesalers buy medicines from manufacturers and distribute them to healthcare providers. Group purchasing organizations broker drug purchases for hospitals and other health providers.

And these markets are like extra-strength cold brew – very concentrated. Vizient, Premier, and HealthTrust are among the biggest group purchasing organizations for hospitals, while Cencora, Cardinal Health, and McKesson are responsible for ~90% of prescription drug distribution in the US.

• The FTC and HHS – without yet naming names – are focusing on whether these middlemen have misused their market power to cut the prices of generic drugs to a point where manufacturers can’t profit and have to stop production, and rival suppliers are discouraged from competing in the generic drug market, per CNBC.

📝💊 Zoom out: The FTC also said this week that it hopes "in the coming months" to share results from its inquiry into pharmacy benefit managers (another healthcare middleman), which was launched in June 2022.

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💬 Quoted… "[Recycling] has always been a fraud, and it's always been a way for the industry to sell more plastic."

• PSA: This bit of news may come as a gut-punch to anyone who takes extra time to sort the recycling from the trash. According to a new report from the Center for Climate Integrity, plastic producers have known for more than 30 years that recycling is not an economically or technically feasible plastic waste management solution, yet continue to promote it anyway. The 68-page report draws on previous investigations, as well as newly revealed internal documents, and cites various examples of industry execs saying one thing behind closed doors and another thing publicly. For instance, in 1989, around the time the plastics industry launched its recycling campaign, the head of an industry trade group acknowledged that "recycling cannot go on indefinitely, and does not solve the solid waste problem." An Exxon Chemical VP, during a 1994 meeting with a plastics trade group, is also quoted as saying (about recycling): "We are committed to the activities, but not committed to the results." The biggest reason for this? Recycling isn’t economically viable. Making new plastic is relatively cheap, but recycling this plastic generally costs as much or more than the material is worth, NPR reports. Other technical challenges exist as well. The result: only about 5%–6% of plastics used in the US each year actually gets recycled.

🏙️ Stat of the Day: A New York City man who managed to live rent-free in the New Yorker Hotel for the past five years by exploiting an obscure local housing law was arrested on Wednesday, after authorities discovered he filed false paperwork claiming ownership of the entire hotel building, and also tried to charge another tenant rent.

🤔 Did You Know?... The University of Oxford is older than the Aztec Empire. The school first opened its doors to students in 1096, while the Aztec civilization originated in 1325.

📰 Worth a Read: Red flags, missed clues: How accused US diplomat-turned-Cuban spy avoided scrutiny for decades → (Associated Press)

• ☝️ Earth-bound surgeons working with the University of Nebraska remotely controlled a small robot onboard the International Space Station last weekend, marking the first successful experiment of its kind.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Spoak

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board. (S&P: +0.6%; Dow: +0.9%; Nasdaq: +0.3%) | 🛍️ US retail sales fell 0.8% in January, outpacing economists' estimates of a 0.3% drop, per new government data; retail sales increased 0.4% in December.
• 🏠 The average rate on a 30-year mortgage rose to 6.77% from 6.64% last week, per Freddie Mac; it's currently sitting at its highest level in 10 weeks.
• 😋🏃 DoorDash beat analysts’ estimates for delivery orders in Q4; shares dropped as much as 12% in extended trading after closing at a nearly two-year high.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• ⚖️ Harvey Weinstein, the ex-Hollywood mogul serving a pair of decades-long prison sentences for rape, is appealing one of his convictions to New York’s highest court.
• 👓 TikTok launched a native and “reimagined” app for the Apple Vision Pro headset. | 🎶 Musician Rod Stewart sold his song catalog rights to Icon Artists Group for nearly $100 million.
• 🏀🏆 Iowa guard Caitlin Clark broke the all time NCAA women's basketball scoring record last night; she now has 3,569 career points; the previous record holder, Washington's Kelsey Plum, had 3,527 career points. 

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with BestBodiesforLife

• 🍚🥩 South Korean scientists have invented a new type of hybrid food – rice grains that contain lab-grown meat. | 🪸🌏 The Earth’s coral reefs are roughly 25,000 square miles larger than scientists previously thought (an area the size of Ireland), per a new study.
• 🤖🎓 UPenn became the first Ivy League school to offer a major in artificial intelligence.
• 🚀🌕 SpaceX successfully launched a commercially built Moon lander into space early yesterday morning; if successful, it would be the first private spacecraft – and the first American craft in over 50 years – to reach the lunar surface.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 📝🎓 Yale is the latest top university to consider reversing its pandemic-era move to make the ACT and SAT optional for applicants. (Background)
• ⚖️ Special counsel David Weiss indicted a confidential FBI source on two counts of allegedly feeding the bureau false information about President Biden and his son Hunter, including a pair of alleged $5 million payments from Ukrainian gas producer Burisma. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)
• ⚖️ Former President Trump will face his first criminal trial on March 25; it's regarding an alleged 2016 hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🍽️ Best restaurants in the US: 47 spots you need to visit in 2024.

Sixteen-year-old Zayneb Abu-Khader is quite the cook. Last year, became the youngest person ever to graduate from the Henry Ford College culinary program.

👩‍🍳 Prove them wrong... Zayneb said the most challenging obstacle to overcome was earning her fellow students' respect in the kitchen. 

• "A lot of people in the field thought of me less in some way because I was younger but I never let it bother me and I never let it stop me," said the confident teen. "No one can dull my sparkle!" 
• The talented cook hopes to travel the world learning more about international cuisine before eventually opening her own restaurant or bakery. 

Note: an earlier version of this story ran on June 22, 2023.

Our weekly news quiz is live. See how your news superpowers stack up against our team.

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

☝️ Recipe #1:

• Pinto beans
• Bacon fat
• Vegetable oil
• Yellow onion
• Garlic
• Smoked ham hock or shank
• Water
• Brewed coffee
• Tomato-based barbecue sauce
• Pickled jalapenos
• Cheddar
• Red onion

✌️ Recipe #2:

• Bacon
• Chicken quarters
• Onions
• Garlic
• Salt & pepper
• Chicken stock
• Red wine
• Bay leaves
• Thyme & parsley sprigs
• White mushrooms
• Butter
• Parsley

3️⃣ Recipe #3:

• Flour
• Cornmeal
• Baking powder & soda
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Sugar
• Salt
• Vanilla extract
• Lemon extract
• Lemon zest
• Eggs
• Sour cream
• Whipped cream

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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☝️ Recipe #1: Cowboy beans

✌️ Recipe #2: Coq au vin

3️⃣ Recipe #3: Lemon olive oil cake

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