Friday Briefing: Biden to float historic tax increase on investment gains for the rich

Friday, April 23, 2021

by Linda Noakes

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Here's what you need to know.

A desperate rescue mission in the Bali Sea, wealth tax worries for Wall Street, and a golden opportunity in Egypt

Today's biggest stories

U.S. President Joe Biden is seen on the screen as European Council President Charles Michel attends a virtual U.S. global climate summit, in Brussels, Belgium, April 22, 2021

U.S.

President Joe Biden will roll out a plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, including the largest-ever increase in levies on investment gains, to fund about $1 trillion in childcare, universal pre-kindergarten education and paid leave for workers, sources say.

The plan is part of the White House's push for a sweeping overhaul of the tax system to make rich people and big companies pay more and help foot the bill for Biden's ambitious economic agenda.

Biden's climate summit will turn to the issue of technology today, featuring remarks from entrepreneurs Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, after yesterday's Earth Day kickoff sought to rally world ambition to reduce global warming.

Advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet again today to consider whether to it is safe to resume injections of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, as senior health officials prepare for a green light.

NASA and SpaceX have launched a new four-astronaut team on a flight to the International Space Station, the first crew ever propelled toward orbit by a rocket booster recycled from a previous spaceflight.

A member of the Indonesian Navy walks past a map of the search area for a submarine that lost contact on Wednesday, at I Gusti Ngurah Rai airport in Bali, April 23, 2021

WORLD

Rescue teams from several countries are battling against time to find a missing Indonesian Navy submarine lost in the Bali Sea with 53 crew, which will be rapidly running out of oxygen if not already crushed by water pressure.

India reported the world's highest daily tally of coronavirus cases for a second day, surpassing 330,000 new cases, as it struggles with a health system overwhelmed by patients and plagued by accidents.

After a night of violence in Jerusalem, Israeli police made over 50 arrests and Palestinian medics said 100 were injured during Ramadan clashes in the contested city at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Britain’s parliament called for the government to take action to end what lawmakers described as genocide in China’s Xinjiang region, stepping up pressure on ministers to go further in their criticism of Beijing.

BUSINESS

Wall Street is skeptical Biden's expected tax proposal could pass the Senate, but investors see risks that tax-motivated selling could still weigh on technology and other sectors that skyrocketed during the pandemic. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies suffered hefty losses on fears the plan will curb investment in digital assets.

The U.S. Supreme Court has made it more difficult for the Federal Trade Commission to force scam artists and companies that engage in deceptive business practices to return ill-gotten gains obtained from consumers, ruling in favor of a criminally convicted payday lender who challenged the agency.

In its biggest acquisition in a decade, Panasonic says it will buy U.S. supply-chain software company Blue Yonder in a deal worth $7.1 billion, to tap growing demand from companies as the pandemic tests their resilience to disruption.

Mining companies awarded blocks in Egypt's Eastern Desert are set to start exploring for gold under a legislative overhaul that seeks eventually to unlock vast untapped mineral resources. Despite a rich mining history that gave rise to elaborate Pharaonic jewellery, Egypt has just one commercial gold mine in operation.

Quote of the day

"It is increasingly clear that the key technologies on which we will rely for our future prosperity and security won’t be shaped and controlled by the West"

Jeremy Fleming

Director of Britain's GCHQ spy agency

West faces a moment of reckoning over technology

Video of the day

Icelandic fishing town hopes to catch an Oscar

The tiny Icelandic town of Husavik, which was propelled to global fame by a hit Netflix comedy, has rolled out a red carpet on its main street in anticipation of even greater glory on Oscars night.

And finally…

Black hole may be the galaxy's smallest

The black hole is roughly three times the mass of our sun, testing the lower limits of size for these extraordinarily dense objects that possess gravitational pulls so strong not even light can escape

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