Good morning! If Hinge isn't cutting it anymore, you might try the grocery store... in Spain. A viral Spanish trend has the young hotties hitting up the supermarket chain Mercadona between 7 and 8 p.m. and tossing a (newly redefined) upside-down pineapple in the cart as a signal.

In other news, there are just 62 days until Election Day.

HEALTHCARE

💊 Medicare negotiates drug prices, still overpays

The good folks at Medicare are finally allowed to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. And boy are they doing a super okay job.

As it turns out, Congress can stuff whatever they want into laws regardless of the name. Which is why the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 allows CMS — that is, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — to begin wheeling and dealing on drug prices.

• CMS spent six months this year negotiating prices for 10 "widely used and expensive drugs." This reduced the cost of affected meds by 38% to 79%.

• New prices kick in in January 2026. That year, the government should save $6 billion while seniors save $1.5 billion at the pharmacy.

• They started small with just 10. But the number of drugs that can be negotiated down rises to 15 in 2027 and 20 in 2029.

Why couldn't they do this before? Great question. Other government healthcare services, like Veterans Affairs, have been negotiating for ages. Congress created Medicare Part D — that's the prescription drug benefit we're talking about — in 2003. Medicare was banned from haggling on price from the start.

• The idea was that the insurance companies who administer Part D plans would do all the negotiating.

• The wider pool of groups negotiating would lead to correct prices based on real supply and demand.

Opposition: It should come as no surprise that the drug companies oppose the new program. They argue the lower prices they're forced to accept will hurt their bottom lines. In the end, that hurts new drug innovations.

Future: New prices negotiated by CMS are lower. But, on average, they're still double what other wealthy nations are paying. In some cases, they're five times as high. But, hey, everybody starts somewhere.

UNITED STATES

✈️ Aided by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the Department of Justice (DOJ) seized the private jet of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro as it underwent maintenance in the Dominican Republic. The DOJ said the plane was used in "criminal matters" and violated U.S. sanctions against Maduro. The Dominicans said they lent the assist for "international legal cooperation,” which probably did nothing to calm the furious Venezuelans.

🏛️ Congress will have its claws full when it returns from summer break August recess next week. The government will shut down if no 2025 budget is passed by September 30. Thankfully, Congress is full of mature, responsible adults who would never use something so important as a political cudgel a month before a presidential election. Right?

🕵️‍♂️ The U.S. Secret Service (USSS) is getting a hand from the Department of Defense (DOD). The DOD will provide some "logistics, transportation, and communications" help to the beleaguered protection service during the busy 2024 campaign season.

CRIME

🇲🇳 Mongolia defies International Court

Weird sentence comin' in hot. The country of Mongolia is in trouble for not arresting Vladimir Putin on Monday. If Mongolia had fulfilled its treaty obligations, Russia's president would be sitting in a cell right now awaiting a trial for war crimes. Instead, his international trip continues as planned.

ICC: Mongolia is a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Often called "The Hague" for the Dutch city it's based in, the ICC prosecutes individuals for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other casual matters.

• Putin is the subject of an active ICC arrest warrant related to his war in Ukraine.

• As one of the ICC's 124 member countries, Mongolia should've arrested him the moment he stepped onto Mongolian soil on Monday.

Mongolia's in a tough spot. Literally. It's a landlocked country with only two borders: Russia and China. Mongolia's sort of tight with the United States. But its hand is often forced by its desire to avoid ticking off the two neighbors that provide most of its energy and trade.

• On a positive note, Mongolia was richly blessed by the sweater gods. It produces about 40% of the world's cashmere.

As a result of its precarious situation, the Mongolian government assured Russia that Putin would not be arrested.

The backlash has been swift, with angry statements from ICC members, proponents, and countries currently at war with Russia. Ukraine didn't mince words, saying Mongolia now shares "responsibility" for Putin's crimes since it "allowed an accused criminal to evade justice."

• The ICC said it's looking into the "non-cooperation." Mongolians shouldn't expect much punishment, though.

• After a similar incident with South Africa in 2015, the ICC investigated, confirmed the non-compliance, and slapped them on the wrist with a stern, "How could you?"

POLITICS

📊 Harris maintains polling lead — but it might not be enough

Kamala Harris is holding onto her polling lead over Donald Trump. An average of national polls shows her leading by 1.9%. But that may not be enough to win. After all, there are separate elections in all 50 states. Running up the score in states you’re already winning does no good. Winning the Electoral College vote — and the presidency — requires a broad coalition of states.

• Statistician Nate Silver's analysis shows that a 1% to 2% national popular vote win for Harris likely translates to a Trump Electoral College victory.

• After all, winning California by 5 million votes is no good if you lose Michigan by 50,000.

• Her current 1.9% national polling lead is right on the verge of breaking this barrier.

A new round of swing state polls paints a good picture for Team Trump. The former (and future?) president leads by 1% in Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina. He and Harris are tied in Georgia.

• If these numbers are correct, enthusiastic Harris supporters might not be high on their own supply. The VP could become the first Democrat to win both North Carolina and Georgia since 1976.

On the Senate side, Republicans have a near-guaranteed pickup in West Virginia. Gov. Jim Justice (R-WV) gets 62% support in his bid to replace retiring Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) — the last of a dying breed of West Virginia Democrats.

🎃 ”October surprise” typically refers to a late-breaking revelation, like Donald Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tape in 2016, that’s held and released just before the election for max damage potential. This year? It might be a movie.

• A Trump biopic, titled “The Apprentice,” comes out October 11. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called the film, led by Sebastian Stan, "pure malicious defamation."

• Cheun said its late release is “election interference by Hollywood elites right before November.”

💰 Kamala Harris’s cash advantage over Trump is paying off in more ways than one. In addition to planning a record-setting digital ad campaign, the VP will transfer $25 million in campaign funds to down-ballot Democrats. Senate and House Dems will get $10 million each, while state-level Dems will get $5 million.

• Meanwhile, Republicans are starting to panic about losing the money game.

🔥 Tim Walz’s former National Guard colleagues are slamming his military record. They say he’s a “habitual liar” with “absolutely no integrity” for misstating his rank and for retiring pre-deployment in 2005.

📧 A leaked email claims the Trump campaign is pulling out of New Hampshire, which it views as unwinnable. The campaign threw some cold water on that and said a top volunteer was canned as a result.

TRIVIA

Americans often default to the Middle East when we think about Islam. But that doesn’t paint the full picture of the world’s second-largest religion. Of the five countries with the most Muslims, none are in the Middle East. Which country has more Muslims than any other?

Hint: It’s in Southeast Asia.

WORLD

🇹🇷 Turkey continues drifting away from the West

Sharing an English name with a delicious bird has its drawbacks. That's unrelated to today's news, but it is partly why the Turks prefer "Türkiye" now.

As NATO's easternmost member since 1952, Turkey has long been a critical U.S. ally. Its position guarding the mouth of the Black Sea only boosts its geopolitical importance (that's where Russia does much of its Russia-ing).

Since 2014, however, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has slowly pulled his country away from the West. That drift continued this week when news broke that Turkey had asked to join the BRICS alliance.

• BRICS is an economic group led by China and Russia. Other members include India, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, and South Africa. Some are friendly with the U.S., others are, well, baddies.

• Turkey is still a NATO member and BRICS, unlike NATO, isn't a national security alliance. But its membership request is the latest sign that it's looking to cozy up with some not-so-friendly countries.

Related: Ten people were arrested in Turkey for assaulting two U.S. Marines whose ship was docked there.

BRIEFS

• Namibia to kill elephants and hippos, distribute meat to hungry people amid drought

• Ex-deputy chief of staff to New York’s governor charged as foreign agent for Chinese government

• U.S. citizen among six hostages found dead in Gaza tunnels by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)

• Ukraine growing frustrated by Biden administration restrictions on use of U.S.-supplied weapons

• Elon Musk's companies at war with Brazil after country bans X for refusing content takedown orders

• AI lobbying startup run secretly by two conspiracy theorists under fake names

QUOTE

SNACKS

🎙️ Music: If you’d like to have a mean-spirited laugh at someone else’s expense, presidential daughter-in-law (and Republican Party co-chair) Lara Trump dropped a new single this week.

🦠 WHY: Scientists have identified more than 1,700 ancient viruses from a core sample of a Tibetan glacier. Don’t worry, though. These puppies don’t infect humans — yet.

📸 Woah: Photographing life in America’s last remaining old-growth forests.

ANSWER

Pope Francis began his 12-day tour of Asia in Indonesia yesterday. Many countries, like Iran and Algeria, ring in at about 99% Muslim. Indonesia doesn't go quite so hard — it's “only” about 87% Muslim. But it has a larger population overall. So Indonesia’s 243 million Muslims make it the biggest Muslim country in the world.