📅 Thur. of the Moment

💰 IRS Postpones Tax Day

The IRS announced it will push its April 15 tax filing deadline to May 17, and will provide further guidance in the coming days.

• The decision comes after lawmakers petitioned the IRS to postpone the deadline, calling the move “absolutely necessary to give Americans some needed flexibility in a time of unprecedented crisis.”

More: Notably, the $1.9T COVID-19 relief package signed into law last week retroactively changed the tax rules for 2020 unemployment benefits, exempting the first $10,200 for households making under $150K.

🇺🇸🇨🇳 U.S. Sanctions Chinese Officials

Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions on 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials yesterday for their role in undermining Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms.

• The Trump administration had already sanctioned the 24 individuals between November and January, freezing their assets under U.S. jurisdiction and preventing their travel to the country.
• The new measures mean that foreign financial institutions that knowingly conduct “significant transactions” with the individuals listed in the report will also be sanctioned.

More: Also on Wednesday, the EU agreed to blacklist four unnamed Chinese officials and one entity for human rights abuses against its Uighur Muslim minority – the bloc’s first sanctions against China since an arms embargo in 1989 following the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

Even More: Officials from the U.S. and China will convene in Alaska today for the first high-level in-person meeting of the Biden administration.

🇪🇺 EU Proposes Travel Certificates

The EU’s executive body proposed a measure to issue Digital Green Certificates - available free of charge in digital or paper form - allowing residents to travel freely across its 27 member states by the summer.

• The Digital Green Certificate would serve as proof a person has either been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, received a negative test result within the necessary timeframe, or recovered from COVID-19.

⏰ Catch Up Quick:

💵 The U.S. has issued 90M stimulus checks worth $242B thus far, according to a report published Wednesday by the Treasury Department.

👮 The suspect charged with murdering eight people at three massage parlors in Atlanta – six of them women of Asian descent – told police he targeted the businesses for “providing an outlet for his addiction to sex.” (From the Left | From the Right)

☝️ 1 Last Thing... 

The campaign to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom submitted more than 2M signatures ahead of yesterday’s deadline (1.5M required to trigger a statewide recall election), beginning a month-long verification process. (From the Left | From the Right)

🏥 Sharing is Caring

Amazon announced plans to offer its health program, Amazon Care, to outside-of-Washington-state employees and other companies.

• The Amazon Care platform, first launched in Seattle in 2019, features virtual meetings with doctors through the app along with in-home care (including blood draws and physical examinations).

The company said it will make the virtual piece of Amazon Care available everywhere in the U.S. this summer, and eventually open the in-person care in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and other areas.

Another Amazon Announcement: Amazon has overtaken Walmart as the No. 1 apparel retailer in the U.S., per Wells Fargo research published yesterday.

🏦 Federal Reserve Results

The Federal Reserve concluded its two-day meeting yesterday, keeping its policy rate unchanged but ramping up its expectations for future economic growth.

• The median projection of 18 Fed officials showed the U.S. GDP rising 6.5% in 2021, up from their December expectation of 4.2%.
• They also expect unemployment to fall to 4.5% by year’s end (currently 6.2%) and inflation to rise to 2.4% (currently below 2%).

More: Most officials indicated they expect to maintain low interest rates through 2023.

🐁 Embryo Experiment

Researchers in Israel devised a method to successfully grow mouse embryos outside a uterus for longer than ever before.

• The scientists reported the new system, which includes rotating bottles filled with nutrients (pictured here), kept the mouse embryos alive from roughly day five of development until day 11 – more than halfway through the animals’ 20-day gestation (previous efforts achieved up to four days outside the womb).

More: To date, the researchers have grown more than 1,000 embryos using this new technique, though repeating it with human embryos past 14 days would violate current international scientific guidelines.

Even More: Read the full report.

⏰ Catch-Up Quick:

📞 The FCC issued a $225M fine - the largest in agency history - to two Texas-based telemarketers yesterday.

☝️ 1 Last Thing…

Image: BMW

BMW unveiled the exterior of the i4, its first electric sedan, which the company says "will enter the market during the course of 2021."

👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Brother of the Year

Kids do the darndest things – but they can do the sweetest things, too.

• A heartwarming video posted Sunday shows six-year-old Noah leading his younger brother through breathing exercises to help calm down from an emotional outburst.

Images: Twitter

“My four year old was about to have a whole tantrum,” the boys’ mom Ashley said. “And my 6 year old helped him manage his breathing so he could calm down.... I’d say I’m doing alright.”

The sweet video has surpassed 650,000 likes in just 3 days and caught the attention of celebrities like Ellen Degeneres, who praised Noah for his emotional development.

• The best part? Noah was consoling his brother (who was upset about not being able to play his Nintendo) even before Ashley hit record.

“My baby was all ‘I understand the pain I do but you just have to wait, it's not done yet.’ THEN I started recording.”

Noah is one of three boys, but he “definitely [is] the sweetest of the bunch.” (Image via Twitter)

• “I’m really just trying to raise some emotionally healthy kids!” she shares. You go, girl. 🥰