Dose Of News Useful Today

Thursday, April 8th

🗞️ Extra! Extra!

Welcome to Thursday. On today’s agenda: the cause of Tiger Woods’ car crash has been revealed, Gallup polls show a widening gap between parties, and a Girl Scout sets a cookie world record.

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Daily Sprinkle

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

–Mahatma Gandhi

💰 The One About Taxes

The Biden administration released new details yesterday regarding its corporate tax agenda.

📜 Background: Treasury officials said the plan will raise more than $2T over the next 15 years to pay for eight years of recently-proposed infrastructure spending.

It includes changing several key features of the 2017 tax law, including raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% (compared to 35% before 2017 – the highest rate among highly-developed nations).

It also features the adoption of a 21% global minimum tax on U.S. corporations - up from 10.5% (which was first imposed under the 2017 law). The move is intended to deter sheltering profits overseas for tax benefits.

🌍 Around the World
In virtual remarks on Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on other countries in the G20 to adopt a minimum global corporate tax rate similar to the one outlined in Biden’s proposal (which penalizes countries that do not follow suit).

On Wednesday, finance ministers from the leading economies in the G20 said they hope to agree on a minimum tax rate by the middle of this year.

📢 Public Response
Business groups object to the Biden administration’s tax proposals as a whole, arguing they would hurt investment and U.S. companies’ ability to compete for global business.

Proponents of the tax hikes argue the 2017 tax cuts went too far, generated too little economic benefit, and incentivized the offshoring of assets.

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💉 Europe & AstraZeneca’s Vaccine

British health authorities yesterday recommended an alternative to AstraZeneca’s vaccine for adults under 30 where possible, due to strengthening evidence the shot may be linked to rare blood clots.

Their decision came after a review of European Economic Area and UK data found 86 cases of blood clots resulting in 18 deaths out of 25M people receiving the vaccine.
Most of the cases reported have occurred in women under 60 years of age within 2 weeks of vaccination.

More: In a simultaneous news conference, EU regulators said they found a link between AstraZeneca’s shots and rare blood clots, but the benefits still “outweigh the risks of side effects."

🚗 Tiger Woods Crash Update

LA police revealed Tiger Woods’ February crash was caused by speeding in a press conference yesterday.

Authorities said Woods’ SUV was traveling from 84 to 87 mph on a downhill stretch of road with a speed limit of 45 mph, and was going 75 mph when it crashed into a tree. There was no evidence of impairment or distracted driving.

More: After examining the SUV’s ‘black box,’ police said there was no evidence that Woods braked throughout the wreck, leading them to believe he inadvertently hit the gas pedal instead of the brake.

🇺🇸 Political Affiliation Polling

Gallup published political affiliation polling data from the first quarter of 2021 yesterday.

It found 49% of U.S. adults identified as Democrats or independents who lean toward the Democratic party, compared to 40% who identified as Republican or independents who lean toward the GOP.

The 9% gap is the largest measured by Gallup since the fourth quarter of 2012. The GOP last held the lead in party affiliation in 2014 (historical graph).

From the Left → USA Today	From the Right → MarketWatch

🧠 In the Know...

⚖️ Catch up on the eighth day of the Derek Chauvin trial. (From the Left | From the Right)

🦠 CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the COVID-19 variant first identified in the UK has become the dominant strain in the U.S.

☝️ 1 Last Thing...

Image: BBC

Archaeologists in France discovered a Bronze-Age stone of what is believed to be the oldest 3D map in Europe.

💰🎭 Caught in the Act

The FBI arrested Los Angeles actor Zachary Horowitz (screen name “Zack Avery”) on wire fraud charges, accusing him of masterminding a $690M film licensing Ponzi scheme.

The SEC also filed a civil suit against Horowitz alleging his company, 1inMM Capital, took money from investors who thought they were financing distribution rights for movies that would run on HBO and Netflix.

Authorities accused Horowitz of paying investors their purported returns using proceeds generated by new investors – the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme.

More: Horowitz appeared in several low-budget films according to iMDb.

🚁 Reaching New Heights

UPS agreed to buy ten electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft from startup Beta Technologies yesterday. The price of the transaction was not disclosed.

UPS holds an option to purchase up to 150 more eVTOLs, which are set to be delivered by 2024 pending FAA approval.

More: The aircraft will have a 1,400-pound cargo capacity, 250-mile range, and cruising speed of 170 mph.

🚀🌕 To the Moon

Plaid announced a $425M funding round valuing it at $13.4B (up from $5.3B last February).
Patreon raised $155M at a valuation of $4B (up from $1.2B last September).
MasterClass is reportedly raising new funding at a $2.5B valuation (up from $800M last May).

More: Twitter has reportedly held discussions about acquiring Clubhouse for around $4B, according to Bloomberg ($), though they are no longer underway. Earlier reports said Clubhouse is considering raising money at the same valuation.

🧠 In the Know...

🎯 Target plans to spend more than $2B with Black-owned businesses by 2025.

🍺 The craft beer industry posted a decline in sales for the first time ever last year.

☝️ 1 Last Thing...

Image: Twitter

Citizen-scientist Seán Doran stitched together this mosaic featuring NASA’s Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. It uses 62 images taken on April 6.

🍪🍪Cookies Galore

Breaking a world record is a dream that can take a lifetime to achieve.

Now imagine doing it at eight years old.

Lily Bumpus has been a devoted Girl Scout for four years as part of a unique California troupe whose members are all cancer survivors.

The troupe’s mission is to change the world “one box at a time” by raising awareness and funds for the fight against childhood cancer.

Images: Facebook

Lily was born with a rare form of bone cancer and started adult chemotherapy treatments at only three months old.

Now seven years cancer-free, Lily and her mom Trish are devoted to helping other families going through the same fight.

The eight-year-old initially set a goal of selling 5,000 boxes of cookies this year.

With the season coming to a close last month, Lily officially smashed the world record, selling a total of 32,484 boxes!

About 5,200 of those sold were donation boxes, which she is personally delivering to kids in hospitals to enjoy.

“Cookies this season had a way of showing the world that anything is possible when you make it possible. That maybe just maybe together we can make a difference."

🏠 Back To Work… a survey conducted by management consulting firm Robert Half found that more than a third of Americans working from home during the pandemic say they would rather quit than return to a full-time office job.

🧠 It’s Alive… scientists at the University of Chicago discovered that certain “zombie genes” in the human brain grow and spread in the hours following a person’s death.

💡 Lighting The World… Isamu Akasaki, a Japanese physicist who won a Nobel Prize for developing the blue light LED, which allowed the ubiquitous use of LEDs in lighting, passed away last Thursday at the age of 92.

🎸 Smells Like Nirvana… a Toronto-based organization called Over the Bridge used AI to generate a new Nirvana song called “Drowned in the Sun.” The program analyzed 30 of the band’s songs and studied each tracks’ vocal melodies, chord changes, guitar riffs, and drum patterns. (Listen here.)