Daybreak Notes & Beans ☕️

Start your day with what's happening beyond the headlines—thoughtful news analysis and global storytelling, all in the time it takes to enjoy your coffee.

By Alexander Verbeek

· Over 14,000 subscribers

Daybreak Notes & Beans ☕️

Three New Species in One Day: Spiders, Sea Stars, and a Hidden Bird

Plus: why cats licking each other is not always friendly, onions and your health, and the sun's dramatic death

19 hrs ago•Alexander Verbeek

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Drug Police in Paris Found a Hidden Picasso Worth Millions

Plus: the butterfly that barely ages, Japan's mystery earthquake, and the most joyful cows you will see today

Jun 22•Alexander Verbeek

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☕️ Armchair Travel for Your Sunday Coffee: Walking the Dutch Hanseatic Cities

🎒 Walking north from Doesburg along the IJssel — and an introduction to my travel newsletter

Jun 21•Alexander Verbeek

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Father's Day: Why the Seahorse Father Deserves More Credit Than You've Given Him

Plus: London pelicans hatch for the first time in 360 years, a lost Mozart manuscript performs in Paris, Gershwin's most famous note was an accident

Jun 20•Alexander Verbeek

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Why Your Dog's Dominant Paw Reveals More Than You Think

Plus: why mosquitoes pick you, the world's oldest words, how blue whales got enormous

Jun 17•Alexander Verbeek

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Which way do you walk? New research says almost everyone drifts left — and no, this is not a political metaphor. Or maybe it is.

Plus: the short-eared Amazon ghost dog, a 178-year-old novel still finding new readers, and dogs choosing their sticks

Jun 16•Alexander Verbeek

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Marie Antoinette Is Still Getting Letters — and She Has 4,000 of Them

Plus: older volunteers defend red squirrels from their sofas, honey bees fly personal routes, icebergs reshaping the deep seafloor, Denmark's museum of…

Jun 15•Alexander Verbeek

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While Trump Dismantles Clean Energy, These Two European Countries Are Hitting 40% Solar and Wind

Plus: Your phone is making you forget things on purpose, France protects 157,000 new forest hectares, Mascagni's near-miss with history, and a sand cat…

Jun 12•Alexander Verbeek

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Two hours a week in the gym may add years to your life

From Antarctic secrets to da Vinci’s reunited notebooks, Sweden's phone ban, a morning of science, history, and the case for paper books

Jun 10•Alexander Verbeek

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The Sperm Donor She Fell in Love With, and Nine Other Stories to Brighten Your Monday

Plus: World Ocean Day conservation win, fire salamanders glow under UV light, and World Cup grass science

Jun 8•Alexander Verbeek

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What Churchill's 500 Paintings Tell Us About Leading Through Failure

Plus: Why your dog eats grass, the Sagrada Família's final tower, mangrove forests recovering, and Zorba's dance

Jun 5•Alexander Verbeek

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The Nighttime Sound That Haunted Coastlines for Centuries Finally Has an Answer

Plus: Dutch flood barriers, Ötzi's ancient yeast makes great bread, and the Von Trapp house near my childhood home

Jun 4•Alexander Verbeek

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The Student Who Saved La La Land, the Real Pirates of the Caribbean, and a Cat Who Nurses the Sick

Plus: Two thousand years found under Notre Dame, Japanese ibises fly free after decades, and sea cucumber tissue that refuses to die

Jun 2•Alexander Verbeek

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How New Yorkers Toppled King George in 1776, and Can Again Today

Plus: why the Great Pyramid survives earthquakes, the octopus with blue blood, and two women buried in an embrace

May 30•Alexander Verbeek

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