Tip News Daily Brief

Your Daily Brief

December 29th, 2022

Good morning, and happy Thursday! If you’re itching for some adventure in 2023 and are already booking your travel plans (hey, we don’t blame you), take a look at this list from The Lonely Planet of the best cities to visit next year. Just do us a favor and let us know wherever you decide to go…so we can live vicariously through you, of course.

In Today’s Brief

Kosovo: Escalation at Serbian border
Covid: Negative tests for Chinese visitors
Katie Ledecky: Female athlete of the year
Terrell Owens: Eyeing NFL comeback

...and more

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Top Tips

House enacts TikTok ban

The U.S. House of Representatives has instructed staff to delete TikTok from any House-issued mobile phones, according to a memo sent to House staff.

Catherine Szpindor, the Chief Administrative Officer of the House, issued the order to delete the social media app. In its memo, Szpindor’s Office of Cybersecurity said it believes TikTok is a “high risk to users” due to a lack of transparency on how its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, handles customer data. The decision comes two weeks after the Senate voted to approve the No TikTok on Government Devices Act. 19 states have also banned or at least partially prohibited the app’s installation and usage on mobile devices they own or manage.

While TikTok has said that its U.S. user data is stored outside of China, the U.S. military, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security have also restricted the app from devices under their control.

BlackRock and Ukraine

BlackRock founder and CEO Larry Fink and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have agreed to work together on investments aimed at rebuilding the country after Russia’s invasion.

Per an announcement from the Ukrainian president’s office, the agreement followed a video meeting in which Fink and Zelensky discussed ongoing plans for rebuilding the nation. Last month, BlackRock announced its Financial Markets Advisory (FMA) division signed an agreement with Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy, outlining that BlackRock’s FMA “will provide advisory support for designing an investment framework, with a goal of creating opportunities for both public and private investors to participate in the future reconstruction and recovery of the Ukrainian economy.”

In September, the World Bank published a press release estimating that the cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine would amount to $349B, adding that “this figure is expected to grow in the coming months as the war continues.”

Vinyl record comeback

Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album, Midnights, has become the first album since 1987 to sell more vinyl records than compact discs.

The milestone comes amid a growing number of vinyl record sales, which have risen over the past 15 years. According to data from Statista, sales of vinyl albums in the United States have increased each year since 2006. The data shows that a total of 41.7M vinyl albums were sold in 2021, up more than 50% from the previous year. Vinyl album sales are expected to rise again this year, with some forecasts expecting figures of about 5.5M by the end of 2022. This would mark the most vinyl record sales in a single year since 1990.

Since its release, Midnights has reportedly shifted 800K vinyl copies, the most of any album in a calendar year this century. Comparatively, 14M CDs were sold globally last year.

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Around the Globe

Hong Kong will drop almost all of its Covid restrictions starting today; people arriving in the city will no longer have to do mandatory PCR tests, and the vaccine pass system will also be discontinued (More)
The European Union and the United States issued a joint statement urging Kosovo and Serbia to “exercise maximum restraint” and “refrain from provocations, threats or intimidation” over escalations in the northern part of Kosovo near the Serbian border (More)
The Kremlin reportedly offered to freeze the sperm of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine in cryobanks, according to state-owned media (More)

On the Homefront

The death toll from last week’s winter storm has risen to 34 in Erie County, NY; at least 25 others across 11 states also have been reported to have lost their lives in the storm (More)
Former President Donald Trump’s redacted tax returns are scheduled to be made public today, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee (More)
The United States became the fifth country after India, Italy, Japan, and Taiwan to announce it would require negative Covid-19 test results for inbound travelers from China two years and older; the new policy is set to take effect on January 5th, 2023 (More)

Glitz & Games

Avatar: The Way of Water surpassed $1B in global ticket sales in the 14 days since its release, becoming the fastest movie this year to cross that threshold (More)
Reggae musician Joseph “Jo Mersa” Marley, son of Stephen Marley and grandson of Bob Marley, has passed away at 31; a cause of death has not been disclosed as of last night (More)
American swimmer Katie Ledecky was named female athlete of the year by the Associated Press for the second time; she first held the honor in 2017 and edged out American track athlete Sydney McLaughlin in balloting yesterday (More)

Business & Markets

Major indexes in the stock market closed yesterday’s session lower, with the Nasdaq touching its lowest point so far this year (Dow -1.10%, Nasdaq -1.35%, S&P 500 -1.21%)
Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to enter a plea next week to criminal charges he faces in the aftermath of FTX’s collapse; court records show that Bankman-Fried is scheduled to be arraigned in Manhattan federal court on January 3rd, 2023 (More)
Amid more than 60% of Southwest’s flights being canceled yesterday, American, United, Delta, and Alaska Airlines announced they are imposing temporary price caps on tickets between select cities in markets where Southwest Airlines operates (More)

Tip & Tricks

Bump This: If you’re feeling nostalgic going into the last weekend of 2022, sip a cup of tea along to the new single “Missing You Now” by indie singer-songwriter Matt Wills - listen on Apple Music and Spotify
Cash Grab: Since no winner emerged in the $565M Mega Millions drawing on Tuesday, the total take-home has risen to an estimated $640M in the lottery’s last drawing of 2022 set for tomorrow night
Jaw Drop: Check out these photos of a partially-frozen Niagara Falls after the winter storm tore through Buffalo and other parts of upstate New York this past week
Nerd Out: Prolific superhero creator Stan Lee (responsible for Thor, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and just about every other Marvel hero ever) would have turned 100 years old yesterday; learn about his legacy and how his creations still inspire so many to this day
Go Deep: All the way from Bob Saget to Queen Elizabeth II, 2022 left many to be remembered - take a moment to scroll through this list of notable people we lost this year
Hot Goss: Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Owens reportedly wants to play in the NFL again and become the oldest player to do so at age 49 (hm…do you think he should do it?)
Life Hack: New Year’s Eve is apparently the worst night of sleep for most of us out of the entire year, but it doesn’t have to be - here are six tips to make 2023 your best sleep year yet, starting with New Year’s Eve

Looking Back…

On December 29th: The United States officially annexes the Republic of Texas (1845); the Irish Free State becomes known as Ireland with the enactment of a new constitution (1937); the Associated Press names Wayne Gretzky and Martina Navratilova athletes of the decade (1989); American actor Jon Voight is born (1939).