Tip News Daily Brief

Your Daily Brief

January 25th, 2023

Good morning, and happy Wednesday! Every so often, the Internet gifts us with something heartwarming mixed in with all the other chatter. Today, it’s a map of the world’s most loving cities based on data on how often the phrase love you appeared in tweets. After you take a look, reply to this email and let us know if you think your city or town belongs on the map!

In Today’s Brief

Ukraine: Germany to send Leopard 2 tanks
Mike Pence: Classified docs at residence
Oscars: 2023 nominees released
Lyft: Rolls out wait time fees

...and more

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Top Tips

Senior Ukrainian officials resign

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accepted the resignations of several senior Ukrainian officials yesterday amid a shake-up of personnel across the Ukrainian government.

The purge in the Ukrainian government came two days after a deputy infrastructure minister was arrested and accused of siphoning off roughly $400K from contracts to buy generators. Over a dozen Ukrainian officials stepped down from their posts, including five regional governors, four deputy ministers, and the Deputy head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko. Ukrainian investigative journalists had previously accused Tymoshenko of driving expensive vehicles amid the ongoing conflict with Russia, though Tymoshenko has denied the allegations.

Tackling corruption was one of Ukrainian President Zelensky’s promises ahead of his victory in the 2019 election. In 2021, Ukraine ranked 122nd out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s list of corrupt nations (those at the top of the list are seen as the least corrupt).

United States vs Google

The Justice Department yesterday filed a lawsuit against Alphabet-owned Google over allegations that the company monopolized the market for digital advertising.

In the complaint filed with a federal court in Virginia, the agency wrote that Google’s “anticompetitive behavior” included strategic acquisitions to boost its advertising division that effectively forced advertisers and publishers to use Google’s own products. Per the DOJ, these acquisitions “raised barriers to entry to artificially high levels, forced key competitors to abandon the market for ad tech tools, dissuaded potential competitors from joining the market, and left Google’s few remaining competitors marginalized and unfairly disadvantaged.”

In response to the filing, Google published a blog post claiming that fair competition exists in the advertising sector. The company also argued that the DOJ’s demands for it to “unwind” its regulator-approved acquisitions of ad optimization platform AdMeld and the ad exchange Doubleclick would “slow innovation” and make buying advertisements more expensive.

Ticketmaster hearing

Ticketmaster said that an influx of bot traffic was responsible for problems with last year’s ticket sale event for Taylor Swift’s upcoming “Eras” tour.

During a hearing with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, senators questioned whether Ticketmaster’s dominance in the industry led to its breakdown during the general sale event, which was ultimately canceled after fans were locked out of buying tickets. Joe Berchtold, President and CFO of LiveNation, offered an apology as he testified before senators, saying “We apologize to the fans, we apologize to Ms. Swift, we need to do better and we will do better.”

Ticketmaster merged with Live Nation Entertainment in 2010 and has previously faced criticism from fans, musical artists, and politicians for anti-competitive practices. Both Ticketmaster and its parent company are also facing an antitrust inquiry from the Justice Department which precedes issues during the Taylor Swift tour sales event.

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Quick Tips

Around the Globe

North Korea issues extreme cold weather warnings for the entire country, with temperatures in the northern regions forecast to dip below -20 degrees Fahrenheit and the capital city of Pyongyang reportedly reaching -2 F (More)
Germany reportedly decides to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine to help aid the country in its ongoing conflict with Russia and will allow other countries like Poland to do the same (More)
Zero rhinoceros were poached in Assam, India, in 2022 for the first time in 45 years, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (More)

On the Homefront

About a dozen classified documents were found in former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana residence last week and were reportedly turned over to the FBI (More)
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley said he would introduce a bill to implement a nationwide ban on ByteDance-owned social media app TikTok; Hawley did not provide a timeline or target date (More)
Super Bowl LVII pregame lineup announced; country artist Chris Stapleton will sing the “Star-Spangled Banner,” producer and R&B singer-songwriter Babyface will sing “America the Beautiful,” and Abbott Elementary actress and singer Sheryl Lee Ralph is set to perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (More)

Glitz & Games

The nominations for the 95th Oscars were released yesterday; A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once leads the list with 11 total nods (More)
American skier Mikaela Shiffrin earned a record 83rd World Cup title; Shiffrin’s giant slalom victory broke a tie on the all-time women’s list with former teammate Lindsey Vonn (More)
Justin Bieber sells music publishing and artist royalty rights to Blackstone-backed music investment fund Hipgnosis Songs Capital in a deal valued at over $200M, marking Hipgnosis’ largest acquisition to date (More)

Business & Markets

Major indexes in the stock market ended mixed, with the Dow locking in its third consecutive day of gains (Dow +0.31%, Nasdaq -0.27%, S&P 500 -0.07%)
Walmart will raise the minimum wage for all employees beginning in March; the move is expected to bring the company’s U.S. average hourly wage to more than $17.50, per a memo from president and CEO John Furner (More)
Ride-sharing app Lyft introduces wait time fees that riders will incur on a per-minute basis if a driver has to wait upon pickup; the platform hasn’t had these previously, despite Uber implementing them in 2016 (More)

Tips & Tricks

Feel Good: Watch magician Kevin Li change his act on the fly so a visually impaired man can experience the trick for the first time (if anyone knows how he pulled this one off, please let us know because we’re stumped)
Sneak Peek: Nick Offerman embraces the finer things in post-apocalyptic life in this episode three preview of HBO’s zombie-thriller series The Last of Us
Bump This: We’re sure Babyface will do a fine job during the Super Bowl, but no one sang “America the Beautiful” quite like the late, great Ray Charles - listen to his rendition on Apple Music and Spotify
Jaw Drop: See surveillance footage of the moment that 26-year-old Brandon Tsay disarms the Monterey Park shooter on Sunday evening
Nerd Out: Read up on how NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope revealed the coldest ices ever observed in a molecular cloud and allowed researchers to identify frozen forms of water, methanol, ammonia, methane, and carbonyl sulfide roughly 630 light-years away
Hot Goss: Brendan Urie announced that his band Panic! At The Disco is coming to an end after almost 20 years as he and his wife are expecting their first child (millennials–have you ever felt older?)
Life Hack: Without room for spontaneity, our day-to-day schedules can sometimes leave us feeling empty, uninspired, and burned out - here are four benefits of being spontaneous and some tricks to help you create new experiences for yourself

Tip-Offs

Understanding yesterday’s change in the Doomsday Clock.

Mapping out the world’s next megacities.

The eight-year-old diamond heiress in India who became a nun.

How to cope with the unique pain of rejection.

A purple-colored part of Utah's Great Salt Lake.

…and snowfall on top of Sedona’s Devil’s Bridge.

Strange locations where famous authors wrote their novels.

The surprising economic impact of abandoned shopping carts.

Looking Back…

On January 25th: Claudius I is affirmed as Roman emperor (41); the animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians is released in the United States (1961); cult leader Charles Manson and three of his followers are convicted of a series of murders (1971); American singer Etta James is born (1938).

In partnership with SuperMush

Beat Your Afternoon Slump with Functional Mushrooms

Our new friends at SuperMush developed three unique sprays to help meet our health goals this year! No more mixing powders in water or coffee, no more loading up on hard-to-swallow pills, and definitely no more disgusting tincture drops that taste like rubbing alcohol. Bleh!

Their Daily Energy Mouth Spray tastes like tangerine crush… with a kick! It’s formulated with Lion’s Mane (which promotes mental function and cognition) and cordyceps, a mushroom proven to provide a clean boost of energy at the cellular level. And since it’s a sublingual spray, you'll feel a boost right away!

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