Tip News Daily Brief

Your Daily Brief

April 4th, 2023

Good morning, and happy Tuesday! If you’ve been reading our newsletters for a while, you know we love starting the day off with optical puzzles every now and then. In that spirit, see if you can spot the five seals hiding in this portrait of walruses. This is a tough one, and the time to beat is 39 seconds…let us know if you do it!

In Today’s Brief

Ukraine: Bakhmut fighting continues
NYC: Two JFK airport workers killed
UConn: Clinches NCAA title
McDonald’s: Closing corporate offices

...and more

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Top Tips

Surveillance balloon aftermath

The Chinese surveillance balloon that flew across the U.S. before being shot down was reportedly able to gather intelligence from several sensitive military sites, according to two senior U.S. officials and a former senior Biden administration official.

Per the reports, China received the information that the balloon collected in real time and was able to control its flight path. Beijing has said that the aircraft–which was first spotted over Montana on February 1st–was a civilian weather balloon that blew off-course, while U.S. defense officials said they had determined that the balloon had been crossing over sensitive domestic sites with the apparent intent to monitor military areas.

The Biden administration reportedly attempted to block intelligence gathering by moving potential targets and stopping them from broadcasting or emitting signals. However, U.S. officials confirmed that those methods didn’t wholly prevent the balloon’s data gathering and added the Pentagon is conducting an analysis of its recovered parts.

Finland joins NATO

Finland is set to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) today, officially becoming the alliance’s 31st member nation.

Speaking to reporters, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed Finland’s accession into the group and said the move would make the country “safer,” adding that “it will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security, and for NATO as a whole.” Like all NATO members, Finland’s acceptance into the alliance means it will benefit from the collective security guarantee that an attack on one is considered an attack on all. With Finland as a member country, NATO’s frontier with Russia will roughly double in length.

Finland shares an 832-mile border with Russia, which warned it would bolster its forces near the Nordic nation if NATO sends any additional troops or equipment there. Along with Sweden, Finland submitted an application to join NATO last year after Russia invaded Ukraine. Sweden is still waiting for approval.

Endeavor & WWE merger

The sports and entertainment company Endeavor will acquire World Wrestling Entertainment to form a new entertainment conglomerate.

In a joint press release, the two companies said that Endeavor CEO Ariel Emanuel will lead the new group, while Vince McMahon will serve as executive chair of the board. Endeavor's Mark Shapiro is expected to continue in his role as president and chief operating officer of Endeavor. UFC and WWE leadership is expected to remain the same, with Dana White continuing in his role as President of UFC and Nick Khan serving as the President of WWE.

Per a regulatory filing, the all-stock deal values UFC at $12.1B and WWE–which is publicly traded–at $9.3B. When the deal closes, Endeavor reportedly plans to list the combined company on the public market. It has yet to be named, but according to familiar sources, it is expected to trade under the moniker “TKO.”

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Quick Tips

Around the Globe

Ukraine is still fighting for control of Bakhmut despite Russia’s Wagner Group claims that it captured the city’s town hall yesterday, according to remarks from National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby (More)
NASA named the members of its Artemis-2 crewed mission to the Moon; the team is compromised of three U.S. citizens and one Canadian and its members are Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist 1 Christina Hammock Koch, and Mission Specialist 2 Jeremy Hansen (More)
A joint Japanese-Australian scientific expedition caught fish at the deepest depth ever recorded at more than 8K meters below the surface, according to the expedition’s chief scientist, Professor Alan Jamieson (More)

On the Homefront

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said he intends to make Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg testify in front of Congress and that a subpoena is “on the table” if he doesn’t testify willingly (More)
Two JFK airport workers in New York City lost their lives after being trapped under construction rubble, according to local authorities (More)
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said he intends to expand a proposal to place an armed guard at every public school in the state and offer state funding for private schools to hire an armed guard in the wake of March 27th’s Covenant School shooting (More)

Glitz & Games

In partnership with Pique Tea

UConn defeated San Diego State with a final score of 76-59 to clinch the NCAA men’s basketball championship title, the school's fifth (More)
Sire Records co-founder Seymour Stein passed away at age 80 in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer; Stein became known for launching the recording careers of Madonna, the Ramones, Talking Heads, the Pretenders, and more (More)
Disney is developing a ‘Moana’ live-action remake with Dwayne Johnson set to reprise his role as Maui, according to a statement Johnson posted to Twitter yesterday (More)

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Business & Markets

Major indexes in the stock market ended mixed, with the Dow and S&P 500 gaining while the Nasdaq lost (Dow +0.98%, Nasdaq -0.27%, S&P 500 +0.37%)
McDonald’s will temporarily close its U.S. corporate offices this week as it plans to lay off an undisclosed number of workers as part of a larger restructuring effort, according to multiple reports (More)
The price of oil benchmarks increased by 6% yesterday in response to OPEC+ announcing production cuts amounting to around 1.16M barrels per day (More)

Tips & Tricks

Feel Good: Read up on how the Los Angeles Dodgers renew the contract of retired outfielder Andrew Toles each year so he can keep his insurance through the team, despite the fact that he hasn’t played since 2018 - Toles was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and is currently in the care of his father in Georgia
Sneak Peek: Check out the official trailer for the upcoming Warner Bros. superhero film Blue Beetle, starring Cobra Kai’s Xolo Maridueña in the titular role as Jaime Reyes
Bump This: R&B singer-songwriter Q puts the Prince influence on clear display in his new single “NOT ALONE” - listen on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube
Nerd Out: Learn about Venus Aerospace, a Houston-based company that has a goal of developing a passenger airplane capable of reaching Mach 9…and that would theoretically make it possible to travel anywhere in the world in under one hour
Go Deep: GQ’s recent profile piece on Tim Cook goes in-depth on how the Apple CEO came to work there in 1997 after growing up in small-town Alabama, how he changed the company’s operations for the better while working under Steve Jobs, and his vision on shaping the future of the company
Hot Goss: Twitter owner Elon Musk substituted Twitter’s bird logo for an image of a Shiba Inu–the mascot of his digital token Dogecoin–as an April Fool’s Joke (though the move came two days after April 1st)
Life Hack: We’ve all heard of “red flags” when we’re getting to know a potential partner, but have you heard of green flags? Take a look at these four dating green flags that signal the start of a successful relationship

Tip-Offs

Refine your palate by sipping the world’s finest spirits.

Visualizing each state’s most common house style.

Taking the cheapest and most expensive plane rides.

Researchers name five countries safe for female travelers.

A new James Webb photo shows warped spacetime.

Examining how cell phones have changed our brains.

Six non-spending tricks to improve your home interior.

Scientists find rapid evolution in the dogs of Chernobyl.

Looking Back…

On April 4th: Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, TN (1968); Bill Gates and Paul Allen establish Microsoft (1975); the Angolan government and UNITA sign a cease-fire agreement that ends the country’s civil war after 27 years of fighting (2002); poet, memoirist, and activist Maya Angelou is born (1928).

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