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Start your day smarter with the most important world news, plus intriguing and offbeat stories. www.ozy.com [OZY]( [OZY]() Your World. Bold & Bright [Presidential Daily Brief]( Start your day smarter with a dossier on the most important world news, rounded off with a shot of intriguing and offbeat stories. Like the president, you deserve no less. Feb 28, 2023 Today The U.K. and the EU have finally reached a deal over Northern Ireland. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two challenges to Biden’s student debt relief plan. The situation in Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine is getting “extremely difficult.” And Bola Tinubu appears on track to win Nigeria’s election — but opposition leaders are having none of it. All this and more in today’s PDB. IMPORTANT Finally! UK and EU Reach Northern Ireland Deal Almost seven years — and four prime ministers — since the Brexit vote, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen, achieved a “decisive breakthrough” on Northern Ireland. The British territory’s problematic because of its [shared land border with the Republic of Ireland](, a proud EU member. “Today’s agreement is written in the language of laws and treaties. But really it’s about much more than that,” Sunak said. “It’s about stability in Northern Ireland. It’s about real people and real businesses. It’s about showing that our union that has lasted for centuries can and will endure.” (Source: [The Guardian]() Student Relief? SCOTUS Weighs Biden’s Multibillion Student Loan Plan The Supreme Court will today hear oral arguments in two challenges to President Joe Biden’s plan to wipe an estimated $400 billion of student debts over the next 30 years. “I’m confident the legal authority to carry that plan is there,” Biden said Monday. But Republican lawmakers and Republican-appointed judges on lower courts have already signaled their disagreement. The high court currently has a 6-3 conservative majority, thanks to the three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump. By Monday evening a crowd of people hoping to get a seat had formed outside the court. A decision is expected by late June. (Source: [AP]() ‘Extremely Difficult’ Zelenskyy: Fighting in Bakhmut Getting ‘More and More Challenging’ Ukrainian troops in the beleaguered eastern city were hanging on for dear life as the Kremlin-aligned Wagner mercenary group threw its “most trained” units into the fray. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said Tuesday that Russia was doing everything it could to “break through the defense of our troops and surround the city.” He added that his soldiers were “showing numerous examples of resilience, courage and heroism.” Elsewhere in the region, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv to reaffirm Washington’s economic support for Ukraine — and low-cost airline Wizz Air suspended flights to Moldova. (Source: [CNN]() We Was Robbed Tinubu Leads Nigeria Election, Opposition Parties Walk Out A Reuters tally put the ruling All Progressives Congress in a comfortable lead. By Monday evening APC’s Bola Tinubu had garnered 39.7% of votes counted, compared to the 32.2% achieved by Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party. The Labour Party’s Peter Obu was a distant third, with 16.6% of the vote. “The electoral process has been rigged,” said Abubakar’s campaign manager. “And we are completely disassociating ourselves from it.” The European Union observer mission put out a statement saying that the “lack of efficient planning in critical stages and effective public communication reduced trust in the process.” (Source: [Reuters]() Briefly Here are some things you should know about today: Too good to be true. Erythritol, a common sugar replacement, has been linked to strokes, blood clots, heart attacks and death, a new study showed. “The degree of risk was not modest,” said lead author Stanley Hazen. (Source: [CNN]() Bad to worse. Authorities fear that as many as 100 migrants might have died when their boat was wrecked off the Italian coast. The official death toll stands at 63. (Source: [BBC]() Outside chance. Bestselling self-help author Marianne Williamson has confirmed she’ll be running for president again. She’s the first Democrat to challenge Biden this cycle. (Source: [The Guardian]() INTRIGUING Data Don’t Lie How the War Is Changing Russia’s Academic Collabs Analysis of the [Scopus database]( shows the war in Ukraine is already affecting global research collaborations. In 2022, Russian scientists collaborated more with co-authors from China and India than in previous years. Contrastingly, the number of papers written with German and U.S. authors fell. Ukrainian academics, meanwhile, made a dramatic shift in their cross-border alliances: collaborations with Russia fell off a cliff, while partnerships with Polish scientists were on the up. Data from 2022 paint only a partial picture, as many of the papers published during the calendar year would have been submitted well before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. (Source: [Nature]() Altered Ego Thai Drug Dealer Had Plastic Surgery to Look Like ‘Handsome Korean’ Gone are the days of fake mustaches and shoddy Scottish accents. When Saharat Sawangjaeng was arrested at a condominium in Bangkok, police said “none of his original face was left.” The 25-year-old, who’s been described as “one of the main causes of Bangkok’s MDMA epidemic,” had apparently gone under the knife several times to completely transform his appearance. Witnesses said he looked like a “handsome Korean man” and he’d adopted a Korean name too. Saharat even told police he was planning to move to Korea: “I want to start a new life,” he said. “I am bored of Thailand.” (Source: [BBC]() Fishy! Centuries-Old Japanese ‘Mermaid’ Is Even Freakier Than We Thought The mermaid or Ningyo was found in a Japanese temple last year, lying in a sealed box and accompanied by a note saying it was caught by a local fisher sometime between 1736 and 1741. Researchers first thought it comprised a [monkey’s torso sewed onto the bottom half of a fish]( — but DNA analysis reveals it’s even weirder than that. Results showed that the torso is a pastiche of cloth, paper and cotton, adorned with mammal hair and fish skin. The mermaid’s jaws came from a predatory fish and its claws were also from a real animal. It was likely made in the 1800s. (Source: [Live Science]() Thick as Thieves Putin Gives Friendship Award to Steven Seagal Russian President Vladimir Putin bestowed the Order of Friendship medal on the Hollywood action star Monday. The medal was given in recognition of Seagal’s “immense contribution to the development of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation.” The Above the Law actor is a longtime Kremlin apologist. He cheered Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and two years later he became a Russian citizen when Putin personally presented him with a passport. Seagal visited eastern Ukraine in August 2022 — even spending time at the notorious Olenivka prison, where at least 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war are thought to have been murdered. (Sources: [AP](, [The Moscow Times]() Back From the Brink New Zealand Beat England by 1 Run in Cricket Match for the Ages In 146 years of test cricket it was only the [second time]( a team had won a five-day test match by a single run. But this is only half the story: what made the Kiwis’ victory even more implausible was that they’d been forced to [follow on]( after a dismal first innings of 209 all out. New Zealand fought back, thanks to an imperious century from Kane Williamson, but England nevertheless began the final day as firm favorites. Fast bowler Neil Wagner, however, had other ideas, taking 4 wickets for 62 runs to clinch the victory by the narrowest of margins. (Source: [BBC]() NOW STREAMING FROM OZY STUDIO COMMUNITY What else are you curious about? 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