Tip News Daily Brief

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March 17th, 2023

Good morning, and happy Friday! People all across the country will don their best green clothes and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day today, but for some reason, Chicago decided to carry out its annual tradition of dyeing the river green last week instead of today. It seems like it would have made sense to do it this weekend, but hey, we don’t make the news…we just report it.

In Today’s Brief

Cyclone Freddy: Death toll passes 300
Arkansas: Diamond found in a park
Joe Exotic: Announces presidential bid
Twitch: CEO stepping down

...and more

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French retirement age

French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday pushed through legislation to raise the retirement age in the country by two years to 64 without a vote in the country’s National Assembly.

The move comes after weeks of protests that have disrupted public transportation, left garbage piling up in cities like Paris, and sparked debate over the future of the country’s social protection system. Macron proposed the plan to raise the retirement age so workers could put more money into the system, which the French government says is heading toward a deficit. An estimated 500K people in France protested against the bill on Wednesday.

The French Senate adopted the legislation yesterday morning, but a ballot in the lower house National Assembly–the other half of France’s parliament–was circumvented after Macron and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne determined it wouldn’t receive enough votes. Article 49.3 of France’s constitution allows the prime minister to force legislation through without parliamentary approval.

Sondheim’s final musical

The final musical from late composer Stephen Sondheim has received a premiere date this fall in New York City.

The musical, entitled Here We Are, will be Sondheim’s 18th. According to Playbill, it derives inspiration from the two Luis Bunuel films The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel. Joe Mantello–whose credits include Sondheim’s Assassins as well as Wicked and Take Me Out–is slated to direct, and performances will reportedly begin in September off-Broadway.

Sondheim died in 2021 at the age of 91. Throughout his career, he became known for musicals such as Company, Follies, and Sweeney Todd. Six of Sondheim’s musicals earned Tony’s for best score. He also received a Pulitzer Prize for Sunday in the Park, an Oscar for the song “Sooner or Later” from the film Dick Tracy, as well as the Presidential Medal of Honor. In 2008, he received a Tony for lifetime achievement.

Plastic rocks in Brazil

Researchers on Brazil’s volcanic Trindade Island have reportedly found rocks made from melted plastic debris.

Researchers tested the rocks–called “plastiglomerates”–from the island and discovered they are made of a “mixture of sedimentary granules and other debris held together by plastic.” The largest source of plastic is believed to be fishing nets, which wash up on the beach and melt into the island’s natural material as the temperature rises. The researchers claim the discovery serves as evidence of the growing influence that humans have over Earth’s geological cycles, with Fernanda Avelar Santos–a geologist at Brazil’s Federal University of Parana–saying that “pollution has reached geology.”

Trindade Island is located approximately 708 miles from Brazil’s southeastern state of Espirito Santo and is a protected area for green turtles. The island’s only human inhabitants are members of the Brazilian navy, which maintains a base there and protects the nesting turtles.

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Around the Globe

European Central Bank raises interest rates by half a percentage point and revises projections for 2023 growth up to an average of 1% (More)
Armed forces in eastern Libya recovered roughly two and a half tons of uranium ore that were reported missing by the International Atomic Energy Agency (More)
Death toll from Cyclone Freddy rises to over 300 people between Madagascar, Malawi, and Mozambique; Freddy is of the longest-lasting tropical cyclones ever recorded and one of the deadliest to hit Africa in recent years, in terms of casualties (More)

On the Homefront

San Francisco Bay area will phase out natural gas heating appliances such as furnaces and water heaters beginning in 2027 as part of the California Air Resources Board’s requirement that all new space and water heaters have zero emissions by 2030 (More)
Florida state attorney announces an arrest in the murder of Microsoft exec Jared Bridegan that occurred in February 2022; authorities reportedly arrested Mario Fernandez, the second husband of Bridegan’s ex-wife Shanna Gardner-Fernandez (More)
A 3.29-carat brown diamond was found at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas earlier this month; it is the largest diamond discovered at the park this year and the largest since September 2021, according to a press release from Arkansas State Parks (More)

Glitz & Games

‘Tiger King’ subject Joe Exotic announces he is running for president in 2024 despite currently serving a 21-year sentence in federal prison (More)
New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz is expected to miss the 2023 season due to a knee injury he suffered Wednesday in Puerto Rico’s game against the Dominican Republic at the World Baseball Classic; he reportedly underwent surgery yesterday afternoon (More)
Demi Lovato is set to direct a documentary on child stardom for Hulu; the project marks Lovato’s directorial debut and Nicola Marsh will co-direct, according to a press release (More)

Business & Markets

Major indexes in the stock market ended yesterday’s trading session higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading gains (Dow +1.17%, Nasdaq +2.48%, S&P 500 +1.76%)
Twitch CEO Emmett Shear is stepping down after serving as the company’s head for more than 16 years, according to a statement he posted yesterday (More)
A group of banks will deposit $30B into First Republic in order to boost its liquidity, according to multiple sources; the institutions involved include Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, PNC, Wells Fargo, and others (More)

Tips & Tricks

Feel Good: Meet ALI, a 24-year-old singer who wowed judges on a recent episode of The Voice…only to reveal that she was born deaf and that her hearing impairment doesn’t stop her from pursuing her passion
Sneak Peek: Watch David Byrne of the Talking Heads pick up his iconic oversized suit from the dry cleaner in A24’s official promo for Stop Making Sense, a remastered version of the band’s 1984 concert film that hits theaters this year
Bump This: Kyle Lux croons classic R&B melodies over a pulsing synth line and bouncy LoFi beats in his single “In Your World” - listen on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube
Nerd Out: Read up on how a team of scientists used data from NASA’s now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (or “SOFIA,” for short) to compile the first-ever detailed map of water distribution on the moon
Go Deep: Now that spring is approaching, learn about the different ways that seasonal changes affect how we sleep…and why our bodies require deeper sleep in winter compared to the other three seasons
Hot Goss: Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen suffered a head injury after he was reportedly attacked by a teenager outside the Four Seasons Hotel in Fort Lauderdale Beach on Monday
Life Hack: Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need fancy machines, weights, or gym memberships to get a great workout in - here are five bodyweight workouts you can do at any time, and five reasons why these kinds of workouts are some of the best forms of exercise there are

Tip-Offs

Ranking America’s best and worst cities for dating.

See the Pentagon’s drone footage of the Black Sea incident.

…and the International Space Station’s view of a Pacific sunrise.

Examining the rise of near-misses on U.S. airport runways.

How a Japanese pop star landed a role in John Wick 4.

The science of why we can dream in foreign languages.

TIME’s list of the world’s greatest places this year.

Learn about the blob of stinky seaweed headed for Florida.

Looking Back…

On March 17th: The first solar-powered satellite, Vanguard 1, is launched from Cape Canaveral (1958); Golda Meir becomes the fourth prime minister of Israel (1969); the Bee Gees make their U.S. television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show (1968); singer and musician Nat King Cole is born (1919).

In partnership with The Brothers Apothecary

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Please support our sponsors!