Good morning. In this edition:

• 👓 First-of-its-kind glasses
• 👮 New Orleans immigration crackdown
• 🤔 What helps you live to 117?

…and much more.

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Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.74-minute read (995 words).

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"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

–Albus Dumbledore (1881-1997)

On Tuesday night, GOP candidate Matt Van Epps defeated Democrat Aftyn Behn in a special election for a vacant House seat in a Nashville-area district in Tennessee, in an election widely seen as a barometer for the current US political climate.

The results: While Van Epps won by a comfortable 9-point margin of victory, it was smaller than other recent GOP election wins in the heavily red-leaning district.

• The election was to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Mark Green, who won by 20+ points in the past two elections, but left Congress earlier this year to take a private sector job.
• President Trump also carried the district by a 22-point margin one year ago, in the only presidential election under the current lines.

Good news, bad news

Tuesday’s election result in Tennessee drew a mixed bag of reactions from both sides of the political aisle.

• Many Republican lawmakers and pundits, including President Trump, frame the result as a resounding off-year victory in what many framed as a key test of Trump’s popularity in his second term.
• But some have also voiced concern over potential evidence that voters are cooling on Trump's agenda, citing a recent Gallup poll that put his approval rating at 36%, the lowest of his second term.

On the flip side: Democrats highlighted how the GOP’s margin of victory declined significantly this year, and said they feel encouraged by what the results could mean in the 2026 midterms. But they also questioned whether Dems could've come closer to winning the race outright by running a more moderate candidate, instead of one who campaigned alongside progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

Looking ahead…Analysts say Tuesday’s results indicate the 2026 midterm elections will largely hinge on which party can better motivate their supporters to head to the polls.

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The eternal cycle of “new school year, new prescription lenses” may finally have an end in sight, thanks to a breakthrough new product.

Eyewear giant Essilor’s new FDA-approved glasses, which are the first of its kind to slow the progression of nearsightedness in kids, have begun rolling out across the US under the brand Essilor Stellest.

Why it’s a big deal

Nearsightedness (aka myopia), is when people can clearly see objects up close, but things are fuzzier further away. Studies have shown the condition is on the rise globally, especially among children, with an estimated 30%-40% of all students in the US expected to have myopia by the time they graduate high school, per Johns Hopkins professor Dr. Michael Repka.

• For decades, there were few options to delay progression of the underlying condition, with most children simply given a prescription for glasses and told to live with nearsightedness.

But a new tool has emerged. Essilor Stellest’s new lenses, worn by kids aged 6-12, are designed to slow the eye’s elongation, which is the structural change that worsens a nearsighted person’s vision over time. Children wearing the lenses experienced up to a 70% slowdown in myopia progression over two years, according to company-funded studies.

Coming to a store near you: Essilor’s lenses are already available at select optometrists and retailers, including Target. Under the FDA’s recent approval decision, the lenses can now be prescribed to any child with myopia who’s within the recommended age range.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 💼 Private US employers lost a collective 32,000 jobs in November, down sharply from 47,000 jobs added in October, per new ADP data.
• 🏛️ Trump admin says it will likely be able to replicate its current tariff agenda even if it loses the current tariff case before SCOTUS; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cites several sections of 1962 Trade Act that the admin could utilize.
• ⛽ White House proposes significant cuts to strict fuel economy standards for passenger cars enacted under the Biden administration.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🏀 Giannis Antetokounmpo is reportedly discussing a potential trade from the Milwaukee Bucks with team officials.
• 🧑‍⚕️ The doctor who supplied Matthew Perry with ketamine in the weeks leading up to the actor’s 2023 death via drug overdose is sentenced to 30 months in prison.
• 🏈✍️ CFB National Signing Day took place yesterday, kicking off a three-day early signing period for the Class of 2026 recruits.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🚫 Scientists retract widely-cited study on economic damage from climate change following criticism by their peers; the research, published last year in Nature, projected the world’s economic output would decline 62% by 2100 under a high-carbon scenario.
• 🔭 Hubble and other telescopes are having trouble capturing pristine images of space due to a recent surge in satellite launches, per new NASA study.
• 🤮 “Winter vomiting disease,” a highly contagious strain of norovirus that causes extreme vomiting, is reportedly on the rise across the country.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

• 👮 Federal border agents launch immigration crackdown in New Orleans, which DHS officials say will target “illegal criminal aliens.”
• 🌎 US gov’t pauses all pending applications for green cards, citizenship, or asylum from immigrants from 19 countries listed in a previous travel ban.
• 🏛️ President Trump issues surprise pardon to Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX) and his wife, who were indicted last year on conspiracy and bribery charges.

☝️ You’re looking at some of the finalists from Aviation Week’s 2025 Photo Contest—essentially the Oscars of aerospace photography. The event covers several categories, including commercial flight, defense, general aviation, and outer space.

🤔 Did you know? One of the first computer bugs was literally a bug. In 1947, engineers discovered a moth stuck inside the Harvard Mark II computer that was causing a malfunction. They taped it into the logbook with the note: “First actual case of bug being found,” which is now kept in the Smithsonian’s museum of American history.

📰 Worth a read: How the Cabbage Patch Kids nearly caused a riot

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• Study of world's oldest person reveals what helped her live to 117 years old
• The mammal with the most complex milk might not be humans, after all
• 4 signs you’re compassionate to everyone but yourself

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Yesterday we covered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s response to recent reporting that found the US military launched a follow-up strike on a suspected drug-running boat in the Caribbean Sea, after two shipwrecked occupants survived the initial strike.

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, how will the US military campaign against alleged drug trafficking from Venezuela play out?

• It will escalate to full-blown war: 19%
• It will escalate with US attacks inside Venezuela, but not war: 52%
• It won’t escalate further: 16%
• Unsure/other: 13%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 615 votes and 59 longform responses.

What's the longest river in Europe?

👗 A Louisiana prison hosted a Daddy–Daughter Dance last week with help from the nonprofit God Behind Bars, allowing dozens of incarcerated dads and their daughters—ages 5 to 20—the chance to dress up, reconnect, and make new memories together.

The Volga River

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