Tip News Daily Brief

Your Daily Brief

March 29th, 2023

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In Today’s Brief

Russia: Tests supersonic missiles
Pence: Grand jury testimony ordered
The Bachelor: Franchise creator departs
Disney: Shuts down metaverse division

...and more

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Migrant facility fire

40 migrants lost their lives in a fire that broke out in a dormitory at an immigration detention center near the U.S. border in northern Mexico.

According to immigration officials, the fire occurred at the detention center in the city of Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. 68 men from Central and South America were reportedly in the facility at the time of the fire, and on top of the deceased, at least 29 others were injured in the blaze. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the blaze started when migrants set fire to mattresses in protest after learning they would be deported from the U.S.

The incident comes almost three months after the Biden administration expanded Title 42, a rule that effectively prohibits migrants who traveled through other countries on their way to the U.S.-Mexico border from applying for asylum in the U.S.

Bankman-Fried charged again

Sam-Bankman Fried was charged yesterday with conspiring to pay a $40M bribe to a digital wallet controlled by Chinese government officials in 2021.

In the superseding indictment against the FTX founder, U.S. prosecutors claimed that the purpose of the bribe was “to influence and induce one or more Chinese government officials to unfreeze certain Alameda trading accounts containing over $1B in cryptocurrency, which had been frozen by Chinese authorities.” The new charge brought against Bankman-Fried is conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Bankman-Fried is currently under house arrest at his parents’ California home and is expected to be arraigned tomorrow in Manhattan federal court. He has pleaded not guilty to the dozen other charges he faces on top of the new charge announced yesterday, while three of his former colleagues have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with investigators. If convicted, he faces up to 100 years in prison.

‘Serial’ conviction reinstated

A Maryland appellate court reinstated the conviction and sentence of Adnan Syed, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2000 after being convicted for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee and whose case was featured in the podcast Serial.

Per the ruling, the lower court didn’t give Lee’s family enough time to attend the hearing that led to Syed's release. Lee’s brother was notified on a Friday afternoon that the hearing would take place the following Monday, and the appellate court determined that his right to attend in person was violated by only giving him one business day. As part of the ruling, the court also ordered a new hearing to be held.

In September 2022, prosecutors moved to vacate Syed’s conviction after they found alternative suspects and unreliable evidence used at trial. Since the court ordered a 60-day window before the ruling takes effect, Syed won’t immediately have to return to prison.

In partnership with Masterworks

A Banksy got everyday people 32% returns?

Mm-hmm, sure. So, what’s the catch?

We know it may sound too good to be true. But it’s not only possible, it’s happening—and thousands of investors are smiling all the way to the bank, thanks to the fine-art investing platform Masterworks.

These results aren’t cherry-picking. This is the whole bushel. Masterworks has built a track record of 11 exits, the last 3 realizing +13.9%, +35.0%, and +10.4% net returns even while financial markets plummeted.

But art? Really? Okay, skeptics, here are the numbers. Contemporary art prices:

Outpaced the S&P 500 by 131% over the last 26 years
Have the lowest correlation to equities of any asset class
Remained stable through the dot-com bubble and ’08 crisis

Got your attention yet? Tip News readers can skip the waitlist with this exclusive link.

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Around the Globe

Russia’s navy test-fired supersonic missiles yesterday at a mock target in the Sea of Japan, according to the country’s Ministry of Defense; the missiles are reportedly capable of destroying a ship within a range of up to 75 miles (More)
Chinese eCommerce company Alibaba will split into six separate units that could seek separate IPOs; the announcement comes amid crackdowns on tech firms by the Chinese government and one day after founder Jack Ma was seen in the country after a year-long absence (More)
Ukraine received the 18 Leopard 2 battle tanks Germany pledged to support the country in the ongoing conflict against Russia, according to the German Defense Ministry (More)

On the Homefront

Former Vice President Mike Pence must testify to a grand jury about his communications with former President Donald Trump leading up to the events of January 6th, 2021 (More)
Renewable energy comprised more electricity generated in the U.S. in 2022 than coal or nuclear power for the first time, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (More)
The Senate Banking Committee held its first hearing yesterday into the collapse of Silicon Valley and Signature Bank, the second and third-largest banking failures in U.S. history, respectively (More)

Glitz & Games

‘The Bachelor’ creator Mike Fleiss is departing the franchise after more than two decades; he will reportedly be replaced by new showrunners Claire Freeland, Jason Ehrlich, and Bennett Graebner (More)
Two groups have submitted $6B bids for the Washington Commanders NFL franchise, per multiple sources; the first group is reportedly the Josh Harris/Mitchell Rales group which includes Magic Johnson, while the second is led by Canadian real estate magnate Steve Apostolopoulos (More)
The HBO series ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ will likely end after the show’s 12th season, according to now-deleted Twitter posts from the show’s producers (More)

Business & Markets

Major indexes in the stock market closed lower yesterday, with the Nasdaq leading losses (Dow -0.12%, Nasdaq -0.45%, S&P 500 -0.16%)
Disney has shut down its metaverse division and laid off the entire team as part of a broader restructuring process, according to multiple reports (More)
EV maker Lucid Group Inc reportedly plans to cut about 18% of its workforce; the layoffs will affect about 1.3K employees, based on the company’s headcount at the end of last year (More)

Tips & Tricks

Feel Good: Researchers at UCLA have identified 65 species of animals–including bonobos, foxes, and rats–who make “play vocalizations,” or what we would consider animal laughter (if that’s not enough to make you smile, we don’t know what is!)
Bump This: Luke Combs pulls off a poignant and emotional cover of Tracy Chapman’s classic song “Fast Car” - listen on Apple Music and Spotify
Game On: Join Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma for a 10-minute video of gameplay from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which comes out for the Nintendo Switch on April 28th
Chow Down: Spring is a perfect time for a seafood meal - if that sounds good to you, try out this recipe for lime-seared scallops with roasted brussels sprouts that’s a great protein option when you’re short on time
Go Deep: Read about Ukraine’s underground wartime music scene and how underground venues have seen a surge in popularity as musicians and music lovers in the country seek an escape from wartime realities
Hot Goss: John Mayer announced yesterday that he has added more dates to his solo acoustic tour, extending it through the fall; a total of 19 new shows were added, beginning October 3rd in New York City
Life Hack: You can’t go wrong with working out on a regular basis - in fact, a new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that regular exercise may be an effective way to treat depression on top of all the physical benefits

Tip-Offs

Try spotting the six differences in this image of spring.

…and see India’s Taj Mahal captured in 4k video.

Charting out the youngest and oldest world leaders.

A Rolls-Royce designer speaks on the art of updating a car.

Speaking of updates, see what you think of Pepsi’s new logo.

An amateur gold-digger’s once-in-a-lifetime find in Australia.

The story of how AI made the Pope go viral for looking stylish.

…and the reasons for the recent declining male fertility rates.

Looking Back…

On March 29th: Farmers digging a well in Xi’an discover a subterranean chamber that leads to the discovery of the terra cotta army (1974); the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I debuts on Broadway (1951); Wayne Gretzky scores the final goal of his career (1999); Walmart founder Sam Walton is born (1918).

In partnership with Masterworks

Real estate dethroned

Not much is considered more reliable than New York City real estate. But with a negative 3% growth in median sales price this year, it hasn’t escaped broader macroeconomic turmoil. However, one NYC market has: blue-chip contemporary art.

And not only ultra-rich dealmakers are celebrating this year...

Thanks to Masterworks. With this platform, anyone can easily get shares of multi-M dollar art by names like Banksy and Picasso. Masterworks has also built a solid track record with all 11 of their exits netting a profit, the last 3 realizing +13.9%, +35.0%, and +10.4% net returns each.

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