Moon discovery, Michigan primary, and Florida man games.

Adam Rogers
February 28, 2024

Happy Wednesday! Today’s edition is 700 words, a 3-minute read.

First-time reader? Sign up here!

Big Stories

Three new moons have been officially recognized in the solar system.

Scientists discovered the moons several years ago but they were recently confirmed by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which names new celestial objects. One of the moons orbits Uranus and two orbit Neptune.
Uranus' new moon, S/2023 U1, is approximately 5 miles (8 kilometers) wide and orbits the planet every 680 days. Neptune's new satellites, — S/2002 N5 and S/2021 N1 — have diameters of about 14.3 miles (23 km) and 8.7 miles (14 km) respectively. One orbits Neptune every 9 years, while the other takes almost 27 years. All three will receive official names: Uranus’ will be named after a Shakespeare character, and Neptune’s will be named after figures from Greek mythology.
The moons are so small and far away that ground-based images typically can’t detect them. To solve this, astronomers took many long exposure images and stacked them. This technique blurred background objects and made the moon’s movement clearer.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that conflict would become "inevitable" if Western forces join Ukraine against Russia.

Peskov's warning followed French President Emmanuel Macron's statement in Paris, where he suggested not ruling out sending troops to counter Russia's offensive in Ukraine.
Several European leaders distanced themselves from Macron’s statement. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and representatives from the UK, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and NATO, denied considering troop deployment.
The debate over troop deployment coincides with Russia's threat of "military consequences" for Sweden's entry into NATO. Ukraine hopes to join the alliance as well. However, if they are accepted, the member nations would be forced to join the conflict against Russia.

Macy's plans to close 150 underperforming stores, including 50 by year-end.

Alongside closures, Macy's plans to enhance its remaining 350 stores by adding more sales staff, improving fitting areas and shoe departments, and enhancing visual displays.
The company will also shift focus towards luxury brands by opening 15 Bloomingdale's stores and 30 Bluemercury cosmetics locations. They also plan to open smaller stores at outdoor shopping centers which have been growing, unlike indoor malls.
Macy’s hasn’t said which stores will close. The underperforming locations accounted for a quarter of the company’s square footage but less than a 10th of its sales.

Wendy's plans to experiment with changing the price of its menu items throughout the day based on demand. The strategy is already used in industries like ride-sharing and ticket sales and is meant to maximize revenue during peak hours. Wendy’s will begin the tests in 2025. (More)

The Biden administration has set a mid-March deadline for Israel to sign a letter ensuring compliance with international law when using US weapons and allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza. The US will pause weapon transfers if Israel fails to comply with the deadline. (More)

OpenAI has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit by the New York Times, arguing that the newspaper essentially "hacked" ChatGPT to get the platform to produce copyright-infringing results. OpenAI claims that the New York Times had to exploit a bug, make thousands of attempts, and upload specific articles to coerce ChatGPT into generating the passages cited in the complaint. (More)

Japan recorded a continued decline in the number of births for the eighth consecutive year in 2023, reaching a new record low. Year over year, births decreased by 5.1% to 758,631. Additionally, marriages decreased by 5.9% to 489,281, marking the first time in 90 years that the number fell below 500,000. (More)

Joe Biden won the Democratic primary in Michigan, although his win was softened by a significant push by anti-Israel war activists to vote "uncommitted." The movement aimed for 10,000 uncommitted votes, mirroring Biden's 2020 margin of victory in Michigan. Early results showed "uncommitted" receiving nearly 23,000 votes. Trump defeated Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. (More)

You’ll sleep better once you turn 50.

Vending machines could be storing your picture.

Your feedback helps us provide the best newsletter possible.