ZWF: 2024 will be an exciting year
Zander's Weekend Facts #99: Sunday, December 31, 2023
Inside this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts, a look ahead to the new year, and a look at what Zander’s been reading this past week. Plus, a compilation of the top headlines you need to know about from the last seven days.
Also, go listen to the latest episode of the Zander’s Facts Podcast! Episode 128 features a recap of some of the most memorable moments from the podcast in 2023. Download the Zander’s Facts podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
Here are Zander’s Weekend Facts for Sunday, December 31, 2023:
What’s to come in 2024
2023 was certainly an… eventful year.
But on this last day of the year, it’s time to trash that old calendar and ring in a brand new year. So what will 2024 have to offer? Let’s take a look:
January 1: New Year’s Day; Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie, the first edition of Mickey Mouse, enters the public domain.
January 8: College Football Playoff National Championship game in Houston, Texas (Michigan/Alabama vs Washington/Texas).
January 15: The Iowa Caucuses will take place, beginning the presidential primary season.
February 11: Super Bowl LVIII will be played in Las Vegas, Nevada.
March 4: Former President Donald Trump’s trial in Washington, D.C. is set to begin. Trump is charged with illegally conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
March 5: Super Tuesday will take place, with 14 states holding their primary elections.
March 19-April 8: The NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, also known as March Madness, will take place, with the National Championship being played on April 8 in Glendale, Arizona.
March 25: Former President Trump’s trial in New York is set to begin. Trump was indicted by a grand jury for his role in hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
March 31: The Ukrainian presidential election is scheduled to take place.
April 8: A total solar eclipse, dubbed the “Great North American Eclipse,” will be visible in several states in the central and northeastern U.S. It will be the only total solar eclipse visible in each of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. this century.
June 2: The Mexican general election will take place. The top two candidates in the presidential election are both seeking to become the first woman elected as Mexico’s president.
June 4-June 30: The U.S., along with the West Indies, will host the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, the international championship of T20 cricket.
June 20-July 14: The 2024 Copa America soccer tournament will take place in the U.S., featuring all ten South American countries and six nations from North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, including the U.S. and Mexico.
July 26-August 11: The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, also known as the Summer Olympics, will be held in Paris. These Olympics will debut the sport of breaking, or breakdancing.
November: The first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit is set to launch and perform a flyby of the moon. The mission, Artemis II, is expected to launch sometime in November from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
November 5: The U.S. elections, including the presidential election, will be held.
December 17: The U.K. Parliament will be dissolved if no election is held sooner (a general election must take place on or before January 28, 2025).
For more information on this week’s top story, here’s an article from The Guardian - What’s ahead in 2024: calendar of the year
What Zander’s been reading
2023 was a year that meant rising prices, layoffs, and bewilderment for many streaming services. The Guardian offers a look into what 2024 could bring for the industry:
Check out this week’s featured article at The Guardian - Global giants gear up to build streaming model 2.0 - (Apple News link)
Zander’s Facts Sporting Club
Here are the top headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:
NFL Week 17: Playoff spots are up for grabs as the NFL caps its penultimate weekend of the regular season later today. At 1:00 pm ET, the 10-game slate is highlighted by the Eagles hosting the Cardinals, the Saints facing the Buccaneers, and the Dolphins taking on the Ravens. At 4:00 pm ET, the Steelers visit the Seahawks, the Chargers play the Broncos, and the Bengals face the Chiefs. At 8:20 pm ET, Week 17 concludes with an NFC North battle between the Packers and Vikings. To begin the week, the Browns took care of the Jets 37-20 on Thursday night. Then on Saturday, the Cowboys fended off the Lions 20-19.
College Football Playoff: The semifinals of the College Football Playoff will take place on Monday, with this season’s edition being the final one to include only four teams. At 5:00 pm ET, #1 Michigan, the Big Ten Conference champion will face SEC champion #4 Alabama in the Rose Bowl. Then at 8:45 pm et, Pac-12 Conference champion #2 Washington will take on #3 Texas, the champion of the Big 12 Conference, at the Sugar Bowl. Alabama is the only team of the four who have won a National Championship in the Playoff era. The winners of the two games will face off in the National Championship game on Monday, January 8 in Houston, Texas.
Detroit Pistons: The Detroit Pistons set the longest single-season losing streak in NBA history last week. With a loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday, the Pistons had lost 27 straight games, last winning on October 28. A loss to the Boston Celtics on Thursday put the losing streak at 28 games, tying the longest streak all-time counting multiple seasons. However, the streak finally came to an end on Saturday night with a 129-127 win against the Toronto Raptors. With three wins on the season, the Pistons have the worst record in the league, behind the five-win San Antonio Spurs and six-win Washington Wizards at the bottom of the standings.
College Football Bowls: The New Year’s Six bowl games began on Friday as we enter the final stretch of the College Football season. On Friday night, #9 Missouri scored twice in the fourth quarter to beat #7 Ohio State 14-3 in the Cotton Bowl. On Saturday, #11 Ole Miss held on to beat #10 Penn State 38-25 in the Peach Bowl, while #6 Georgia trounced #5 Florida State, who had 23 players opt out of playing, 63-3 in the Orange Bowl. On Monday, #23 Liberty will take on #8 Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl at 1:00 pm et on ESPN.
NFL Playoff Picture: The Playoff Picture in the NFL is getting clearer by the day with seven of the 14 spots currently locked in. In the AFC, the Browns, Dolphins, and Ravens have each clinched a spot in the postseason. Before Sunday’s games, the Chiefs, Jaguars, Bills, and Colts are all in the Playoffs, while the Texans, Steelers, Bengals, Raiders, and Broncos are all still alive. Moving over to the NFC, the 49ers and Lions have clinched their division titles, guaranteeing them a top-four seed. The Eagles and Cowboys, meanwhile, have both clinched a Playoff spot and both have a chance of winning the NFC East. The Buccaneers, Rams, and Seahawks are all currently in the Playoffs, while the Vikings, Falcons, Packers, Saints, and Bears all still have a chance at reaching the postseason.
Rapid-fire Facts
These are top news headlines from the past week in rapid-fire fashion:
Trump Ballot Removal: After the Colorado Supreme Court ruled to bar former President Donald Trump from the state’s primary election ballot, more states have announced their own decisions. On Monday, the Secretary of State of Maine announced that Trump would not qualify for the state’s GOP primary ballot, believing he is barred from running by Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. In Michigan, the state Supreme Court ruled that Trump can remain on the ballot, while the California Secretary of State came to the same conclusion. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce whether it will weigh in on the matter in January.
AI Lawsuit: The New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft on Wednesday for using the newspaper’s stories without permission. The suit alleges that OpenAI is using stories from the Times to train its ChatGPT platform, which the Times says threatens the company’s livelihood. Microsoft is a significant investor in OpenAI and is involved in a partnership with the company. The Times included evidence of both ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing Chat using portions of NYT articles when generating responses to questions.
U.S.-Ukraine Aid: The Biden administration approved the final aid package to Ukraine for 2023 on Wednesday. The $250 million military assistance package includes arms and equipment, including over 15 million rounds of small arms ammunition. The administration warned that this could be the last aid sent to Ukraine unless Congress approves further assistance. Additional Ukraine funding failed to pass in Congress earlier this month. In Ukraine, the government is warning that Russia is carrying out what is described as the “most massive aerial attack” of the nearly two-year conflict.
Military Sexual Assault: The U.S. military announced a change to the way sexual assault cases are handled on Thursday. Previously sexual assault and other serious crimes were under the purview of military commanders. The new policy requires that independent prosecutors under the Offices of Special Trial Counsel oversee all cases. The policy change was long awaited, receiving bipartisan approval earlier this year in Congress and an executive order from President Biden. The Pentagon found that in the 2022 fiscal year, there were 8,942 sexual assault cases across all the branches.
Lauren Boebert: Rep. Lauren Bobert (R-CO) announced on Thursday that she will be running in a different congressional district in the 2024 elections. Boebert said she would run in Colorado’s 4th District after serving for the past three years in the 3rd District. Boebert’s 2022 race was closer than expected, beating Democrat Adam Frisch by just 546 votes. Frisch is also running to be the 3rd District’s Democratic nominee in 2024. The 4th District is more favorable to Republicans, although six other Republicans are already running for the GOP nomination. Current Rep. Ken Buck is retiring at the end of the current term.
Wrapping up the Facts
Before this edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts wraps up, here’s another reminder to check out the latest episodes of the Zander’s Facts podcast. Download and listen to the latest episode of the podcast, along with every episode of Zander’s Facts, wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also listen to every episode of the podcast on this very website. All Zander’s Facts podcast episodes are now available on zandersfacts.com under the “Zander’s Facts” tab for your enjoyment! That includes the next episode of the Zander’s Facts Podcast, which comes out this Wednesday!
That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The facts in print return next Sunday, January 7, 2024.
