ZWF: Here's what's on deck for 2023
Zander's Weekend Facts #47: Sunday, January 1, 2023
I’ve got a New Year’s resolution for ya, indulge in the facts from Zander’s Facts!
Inside this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts, a celebration of the New Year, and a look at what Zander’s been reading this past week. Plus, a compilation of the top headlines from the last seven days.
Also, go listen to the latest episode of the Zander’s Facts podcast! Episode 88 features a deep dive into the Electoral College. Zander has a big question, why does the United States use the Electoral College to elect a President? Zander also has the answer, and takes a look at how the American institution could change in the future. Go download and listen to the Zander’s Facts podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
Here are Zander’s Weekend Facts for Sunday, January 1, 2023:
Here’s what’s to come in the New Year
Happy New Year!
What a year 2022 was. There were good things, there were bad things, and there were many things.
Now it’s time to look ahead to 2023. There’s a lot that’s going to be happening in this new year, not just here in the United States, but all across the globe. From major political moments to colossal sporting events, and more, there’s sure to be a lot that happens over the next 365 days.
To celebrate the beginning of the year 2023, here’s a compilation of what we can expect to see this coming year:
January 3 - Congress Convenes: The 188th U.S. Congress will be sworn in this Tuesday, with Republicans taking control of the House while Democrats remain in the majority in the Senate.
January 5-8 - CES 2023: Some of the newest and most mind-blowing technology we have will be on display in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Consumer Electronics Show.
January 9 - College Football Playoff National Championship: That’s right, we are not done with the college football season. The National Championship game between #3 TCU and #1 Georgia takes place next Monday.
February 12 - Super Bowl LVII: The conclusion of the professional football season takes place next month. With the champions of the AFC and NFC meeting in Glendale, Arizona.
March 12 - Daylight Savings Time Begins: The U.S. sets its clocks forward one hour, possibly for the last time. If a bill in Congress to make daylight saving time permanent passes, it would make the end of the twice-annual clock change.
April 1 & 3 - NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four: The conclusion of the college basketball season will take place in Houston, Texas at the beginning of April. Selection Sunday, when we can all start filling out our brackets, is three weeks earlier. This year’s edition will also be the last for legendary broadcaster Jim Nantz, who has called the Final Four since 1991.
May 6 - Coronation of Charles III and Camilla: The coronation of Charles III as King of the United Kingdom and his wife Camilla as Queen is set to occur in May after Queen Elizabeth II passed away last year.
June 10 - UEFA Champions League Final: The European club soccer season comes to a conclusion with the Champions League Final, set to take place in Istanbul, Turkey.
June 30 - Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: I actually just picked one familiar movie series, but there are a bunch of anticipated movies that will premiere this year. Check out this list from Rotten Tomatoes for some of them.
July 11-12 - NATO Summit 2023: NATO (North Atlantic Trade Organization) will be holding its next summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, with the heads of the 30 NATO nations convening just over 100 miles from the Russian border.
July 20-August 20 - FIFA Women’s World Cup: After Argentina took the men’s trophy, the women get their turn in the limelight. The USWNT will look to win their third straight World Cup with this edition of soccer’s biggest stage taking place in Australia and New Zealand.
October 20 - 50th Anniversary of the Sydney Opera House: One of the most iconic structures on the planet will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. There will be special events taking place throughout the year in Sydney, Australia.
November 7 - Election Day in the U.S.: It may be an off year, but there are still elections taking place in several states across the U.S., including in Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia.
Of course, we’ll see those events happen, and many more that we have no idea will occur yet.
Also coming this year, a bunch of new laws in various states across the country take effect. Here’s an article from Axios that compiles the state laws that will change this year, from dealing with the minimum wage to abortion and marijuana.
2023 will be quite a year! Let us hope it will be full of facts, too!
(And don’t worry, while some things will change this year, your source for facts will not. Zander’s Facts will continue spreading all the facts you need to know in the new year! We’re planning some exciting things for this new year, so stay tuned!)
What Zander’s been reading this week
If you’ve been following Zander’s Facts for any amount of time now, you probably know that Zander loves electric vehicles. So let’s start the year off with some EV news. With electric vehicles becoming more mainstream, more and more models will be hitting the market. Business Insider has compiled information on some sleek electric vehicles that are set to be released over the next 12 months.
Check out this week’s featured article on Business Insider - See the 8 coolest electric cars hitting streets next year, from Chevy's $105,000 truck to Hyundai's spaceship-like sedan - (Article on Apple News)
Rapid-fire Facts
These are top news headlines from the past week in rapid-fire fashion:
China Covid Restrictions: China announced the end of a major Coronavirus-era restriction this week. The country became the last major economy in the world to stop requiring travelers entering the country to quarantine. The new policy will take effect in the southeast Asian nation on January 8. As other restrictions have been lifted, Covid cases have increased rapidly in the country. In response, the United States and other countries are now requiring those arriving from China to provide a negative Covid test result.
Trump Tax Returns: On Friday, the House Ways and Means Committee publicly released six years of tax returns from former President Donald Trump. Democrats on the committee were able to obtain the documents after the Supreme Court ruled in the committee’s favor after Trump had filed a lawsuit. The committee’s report shows that Trump paid over $1.1 million in federal income taxes during his presidency, but $0 in 2020 and just $750 in 2017. The tax returns also revealed that Trump maintained a Chinese bank account while President in 2017, despite Trump claiming in a 2020 presidential debate that he closed the account before his 2016 campaign.
Title 42 Lawsuit: This week, the Supreme Court kept Title 42 in place while the court hears a case surrounding whether the policy should end. Title 42 is an emergency health order first instituted in 2020 that allows the federal government to quickly expel migrants from the southern border. While President Biden vowed to implement a more human approach to immigration, the policy has continued during his presidency. In 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit seeking to end Title 42. Earlier this year, a lower court ruled that the use of Title 42 must end, giving the government until December 21. Now, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in February over whether a coalition of 19 state Attorneys General have standing to intervene in the lawsuit.
Southwest Airlines Chaos: Thousands of Southwest Airlines flights were canceled this week after the airline’s infrastructure crashed. Caused by a massive storm that brought snow and freezing cold to many across the U.S., Southwest’s outdated infrastructure was not able to handle the many cancellations that needed to take place. Airline crews and airplanes could not be tracked, leading to a snowball effect that canceled thousands of flights in the days after when other airlines had resumed normal operations. By Friday, normal operations had resumed, but problems could remain unless Southwest updates its technology, industry insiders warn.
George Santos: Congressman-elect George Santos (R-NY) is being investigated by state and federal authorities after it was revealed he lied about his past. Santos, who was elected earlier this year in New York’s third congressional district, has admitted to lying about having Jewish ancestry, experience on Wall Street, and a college degree. There are also other items found in reports that Santos has not addressed. Santos has said he will not step down and will be sworn in when the new Congress convenes on Tuesday, January 3.
Zander’s Facts Sporting Club
Here are the top headlines from the sports world in the ZF Sporting Club:
Pelé 1940-2022: Soccer legend Pelé passed away this week at the age of 82. An icon not just in soccer, but also in sports and in society, Pelé is the only soccer player in history to have won three World Cup titles. His World Cup triumphs with Brazil in 1958, 1962, and 1970 showed off his greatness on the world stage, with the 1970 Brazil side arguably the greatest in history. For most of his club career, he remained in Brazil with Santos FC but joined New York Cosmos of the defunct NASL in 1975 for two years. His impact on the game, as the greatest player to ever play it, has and will continue to be monumental.
College Football Playoff Semifinals: The two College Football Playoff semifinal games took place on Saturday, with two schools clinching spots in this year’s National Championship game. The Semifinals featured two thrilling back-and-forth games. In the first game of the day, #2 Michigan and #3 TCU tussled to get 96 combined points, the most in Fiesta Bowl history. It was #3 TCU who came out on top, winning 51-46, and making the program’s first-ever National Championship game. In the second matchup, #4 Ohio State held a lead as big as 14 points in the second half, but it was #1 Georgia who was able to come from behind. After #4 Ohio State missed a go-ahead field goal with 8 seconds left, #1 Georgia pulled out the 42-41 win. So it will be #1 Georgia and #3 TCU facing off in the College Football Playoff National Championship game on Monday, January 9. (P.S. Zander’s preview of the game is coming in next week’s ZWF!)
NFL Week 17: This week marks the penultimate weekend of the NFL regular season, with teams fighting to make the upcoming postseason. Among the notable matchups this week, the 1:00 pm et window features the Dolphins facing the Patriots, the Browns taking on the Commanders, and the Panthers playing the Buccaneers. At 4:00 pm et, the 49ers face the Raiders, the Jets head to Seattle to play the Seahawks, and the Packers host the Vikings. On Sunday night, the Steelers travel to face the Ravens, while the year’s final Monday night game is the week’s best game, with the Bills taking on the Bengals as the #1 seed in the AFC is on the line. In the year’s final Thursday night showdown, the Cowboys took down the Titans 27-13.
NFL Playoff Picture: With just two weeks left in the NFL regular season, this year’s playoff picture is beginning to take shape. Coming into Sunday’s Week 17 games, a total of nine teams have clinched playoff berths. In the AFC, the Bills, Bengals, Chargers, Chiefs, and Ravens have clinched spots in the postseason. If the season ended before Sunday’s games, the Jaguars and Dolphins would be in the playoffs, while the Titans, Patriots, Jets, Steelers, and Raiders are still in the hunt. In the NFC, the 49ers, Cowboys, Eagles, and Vikings are already in. Right now, the Buccaneers, Giants, and Commanders would be in the playoffs, with the Packers, Panthers, Seahawks, Lions, and Saints still with a chance.
Cristiano Ronaldo: Soccer phenom Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a massive deal with Saudia Arabian club Al Nassr. The deal, rumored to have a $75 million salary adding up to $200 million per year with benefits, is set to run through 2025. Ronaldo signed with the Saudi club after he couldn’t field any competitive offers to remain in Europe. The 37-year-old Ronaldo was benched for both club (Manchester United) and country (Portugal) over the last few months.
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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.
Check out Zander’s Facts’ Linktree page for more on everything Zander’s Facts related, including the all-new Zander’s Facts website. At ZandersFacts.com, get the latest on all the facts that Zander is putting out, and check out the freshest styles at the Zander’s Facts shop!
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.substack.com under the “Zander’s Facts” tab for your enjoyment. That includes the next ZF Flashback from 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 8, 2023.
