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☆ Big Companies Seeing Tax Benefits From Law Change Some of Them Fought
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Richard Rubin | Jennifer Williams-Alvarez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Those companies now qualify for a bigger tax break for exports because of the way the research-deduction change alters their tax calculations. Photo: Dado Ruvic/REUTERSModerna saw that tax break jump to a 7.4 percentage-point benefit on its tax rate from 4.8 points in 2021, even as its cash tax payments rose. The change requiring companies to spread out research deductions was part of the 2017 tax law, and it was designed to partly offset the revenue loss from cutting corporate tax rates. PREVIEWAt the same time, the smaller research deduction means many companies can get a bigger advantage from the export tax break. The size of the FDII tax break is based in part on how much income a company has.

☆ At right-wing CPAC forum, Trump shows why he'll be tough to topple
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( James Oliphant | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/4] Former U.S. President Donald Trump attends the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at Gaylord National Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., March 4, 2023. The three-day conference illustrated the iron grip he holds over the right-wing, grassroots base of his party and how hard it could be for a challenger to deny Trump the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. DeSantis also attended a gathering for Republican donors in Florida held by the anti-tax group Club for Growth to which Trump was not invited. In his remarks, Bannon maintained that Trump should be the Republican nominee, saying DeSantis and other potential challengers lacked experience. Trump and DeSantis both are scheduled in the coming days to visit Iowa, which holds the first Republican nominating contest next year.

☆ Trump Ties and ‘Trumpinator’ T-shirts at CPAC—But Few 2024 Challengers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Alex Leary | John Mccormick | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

OXON HILL, Md.—Lisa Olson-Marshke walked into Donald Trump’s office here and pulled up a seat behind his desk. On one side was a red “Make America Great Again” hat, along with a gold-wrapped chocolate bar that proclaimed, “Trump was right!”“It sort of felt like being there,” Ms. Olson-Marshke said of the mock Oval Office at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual four-day gathering that the former president will headline on Saturday as he accelerates his 2024 comeback campaign.

☆ CPAC Has Donald Trump Hats, ‘Trumpinator’ T-Shirts, but No Ron DeSantis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Alex Leary | John Mccormick | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Take a look inside Subway's new corporate HQ, where it has a mock restaurant to test out new menu items
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Subway announced on Thursday that it has opened its new corporate headquarters in Miami, just a few minutes' drive from the Florida city's international airport. The exterior of Subway's new Miami HQ. Eileen Escarda via SubwayNews of the opening had been circling since at least 2020, and marks Subway's transformation into a dual-headquartered business. The sandwich chain announced the relocation in 2021, but had up until now shared few details.

☆ I built a 6-figure company designing sets for photoshoots and events. Here's how I turned my college hobby into a business.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Skylar Mitchell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Dotun Abeshinbioke is a set designer and the owner of Ábiké Studio in New York. She got into set design as a student and started making sets for friends, leading to paying clients. I initially started doing design work for T-shirts and flyers, then I started designing sets to showcase my photography. Ábiké Studio was inspired by my traditional Yoruba name, which means "born to treasure." As a creative studio, we do branding, web design, and experiential design for clients across creative fields.

☆ Fox faces an ‘existential threat’ from its multi-billion-dollar defamation cases
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch said under oath that he made a business decision when allowing a conspiracy theorist to promote election lies on Fox News. The network faces two separate defamation lawsuits from voting technology companies that collectively seek $4.3 billion in damages. Cases against FoxDominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News and Fox Corporation for $1.6 billion, accusing the network of spreading false claims that its technology enabled election fraud. A separate, similar case brought by voting technology firm Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion in damages. It also illustrated instances of Fox actively pushing back on fact-checks that undermined the election lies being peddled by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

☆ A laid-off Twitter exec who went viral for sleeping on the office floor says people who are afraid of being 'dunked on' should stay 'small and invisible'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A laid-off Twitter exec said people who are afraid of criticism should stay "small and invisible." Esther Crawford had become known for her commitment to Elon Musk's "Twitter 2.0." During her time at Twitter, Crawford was seen as an embodiment of Musk's "hardcore" work culture. "If you can't take being publicly dunked on then be sure to avoid taking any risks and stay away from all leadership roles," Crawford tweeted. Stay small and invisible and most of all, be silent and afraid of what others think."

☆ Mexican president says Tesla to build plant in Mexico
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - FEBRUARY 27, 2023: Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at the daily morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City. On February 27, 2023 in Mexico City, Mexico. Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday that electric car company Tesla has committed to building a plant in the city of Monterrey, an industrial hub in northern Mexico. López Obrador said the promise came in phone calls he had Friday and Monday with Tesla head Elon Musk. "There is one commitment that all the water used in the manufacture of electric automobiles will be recycled water," López Obrador said.

☆ A Twitter manager seen as embodying Elon Musk's 'hardcore' work culture was reportedly laid off. She says she has no regrets going 'all-in on Twitter 2.0.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Crawford, a Twitter manager seen as embodying Musk's "hardcore" work culture, has reportedly since been laid off. "The worst take you could have from watching me go all-in on Twitter 2.0 is that my optimism or hard work was a mistake," Crawford tweeted Sunday. Crawford, a director of product management, was seen as embodying Twitter owner Elon Musk's "hardcore" work culture. Crawford reportedly defended Musk's initial mass layoffs that led to thousands of the company's workers losing their jobs. Another said: "All your hard work is reflected in the quality of the current Twitter user experience," apparently referencing recent issues with the site.

☆ Zelenskyy predicts Vladimir Putin will be toppled by his own people. They will 'find a reason to kill the killer,' said Ukraine's president
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Zelenskyy said that he believed his own people would eventually topple Vladimir Putin. He said that eventually, they would turn on him and "will find a reason to kill the killer." "There will certainly be a moment when the fragility of Putin's regime is felt in Russia," Zelenskyy told journalist Dmytro Komarov in a new documentary. They will find a reason to kill the killer," he says, per a translation by Ukrayinska Pravda. Although denouncing the war is illegal in Russia, there have been rare moments of dissent, and Russia's military bloggers have started openly criticizing Moscow's military leadership.

☆ Russian lawmaker who hung noodles on his ears to mock Putin's speech might face punishment
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A lawmaker shared a video of himself with noodles hung on his ears while watching Putin's speech. In Russia, the idiom "to hang noodles on someone's ears" means to tell lies. A spokesman for the Russian Communist Party said they would be looking into the incident. A spokesman for the Russian Communist Party, Alexander Yushchenko, said on Thursday that the party would be investigating the noodle video and "won't leave it without attention," The Telegraph reported. "This is an odd, to put it mildly, escapade which would be more suitable for a Ukrainian, not a Russian lawmaker," Khinshtein said, according to The Telegraph.

☆ Alaska Republican Censured for Asking If Child Abuse Benefits Society
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

An Alaska Republican has been censured by his colleagues for asking if fatal child abuse benefits society. At a hearing this week, Rep. David Eastman asked a witness if dead children save taxpayer money. ACT doesn't have a stance on abortion, per Alaska Public Media. On Wednesday, every one of his colleagues agreed to condemn him, voting 35-1 to censure him, according to Alaska Public Media. We cannot allow such atrocious, indefensible language to go undenounced," Alaska Democratic state Rep. Andrew Gray said, the outlet reported.

☆ ‘It’s a major blow’: Dominion has uncovered ‘smoking gun’ evidence in case against Fox News, legal experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

While the legal experts cautioned that they would like to see Fox News’ formal legal response to the filing, they all indicated in no uncertain terms that the evidence compiled in Dominion’s legal filing represents a serious threat to the channel. On one occasion, Carlson demanded that Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich be fired after she fact-checked a Trump tweet pushing election fraud claims. Tushnet said that in all of her years practicing and teaching law, she had never seen such damning evidence collected in the pre-trial phase of a defamation suit. “Donald Trump seems to be very good at generating unprecedented situations.”David Korzenik, an attorney who teaches First Amendment law and represents a number of media organizations, said that the filing showed Dominion’s case against Fox News has serious teeth. “Their motion for summary judgment takes an extreme and unsupported view of defamation law and rests on an accounting of the facts that has no basis in the record.”But the attorneys said Dominion’s filing showed it had built a powerful case against Fox.

☆ Putin took a swipe at oligarchs who have fled abroad, while asking them to come back and invest in Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Putin aimed a jab at Russian oligarchs living abroad in his state-of-the-nation speech on Tuesday. He pointed out how Western sanctions have hurt them, and said they should now invest in Russia. The annual state-of-the-nation address is a tool to shore up domestic political support and assert Russia's place in world affairs. "It's like 'you've got no friends, you might as well get on board,'" McGlynn said to describe Putin's line of attack. McGlynn also says that there are no Russian oligarchs left "because 'oligarchs' suggests that [these] people have influence like they did in the 1990s.

☆ The Supreme Court lets police officers avoid being sued after they arrested an Ohio man for making fun of cops on Facebook
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Grace Eliza Goodwin | Ashley Collman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Supreme Court declined to take up his case, effectively allowing the police officers to avoid the lawsuit. Novak appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, even getting the satirical news site The Onion to write an amicus brief. The Supreme Court regularly takes on less than 1% of the case petitions it receives every year, according to News 5 Cleveland. In recent years there has been an effort in the US to end qualified immunity protections for police officers. The George Floyd Justice in Police Act was passed by the House in 2020 and included a section restricting qualified immunity for police officers.

☆ The Ohio train derailment is a mess for the US. The Twitter of China is reacting with glee.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

People on Weibo are relishing the chance to mock the US after a 50-car train derailed in Ohio. It's another example of inflammatory rhetoric that's left to simmer on China's version of Twitter. On Tuesday, four of the top 20 "hot searches" on Weibo, the Twitter of China, featured videos or news blog articles about the derailment. Widespread US media coverage and discussion of the Chinese balloon incensed Chinese state media and Weibo users. After all, anything can happen in a country that can arrest journalists reporting this," wrote blogger MaVision of the train derailment.

☆ Harvard-trained psychologist: If you use any of these 8 toxic phrases, 'your relationship may be in trouble'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Dr. Cortney Warren | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

What to say instead: "I'm really upset, but I'm not ready to talk about it yet." What to say instead: "I think this situation is triggering issues from your past. What to say instead: "I think your response to this situation is making it worse." Language that threatens the end of your relationship — like "I'm leaving," "I'm done," or "I want to break up" — creates instability and insecurity. What to say instead: "I'm really upset right now and need to take a moment," or "We need to have a serious conversation about our relationship."

☆ North Korea shows off design for new, more dangerous missile while rolling out enough ICBMs to possibly overwhelm US defenses
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

North Korea boasted its progress on a new and dangerous solid-fueled missile at a military parade. In recent years, North Korea has indicated that its missile program is pivoting toward the use of solid fuel, Ian Williams, deputy director of the Missile Defense Project at the CSIS, told Insider. North Korea has displayed large canisters before, but the ones displayed on Wednesday appear to be more legitimate than those in the past, Williams said. This is because the defense system's interceptors would not have the capacity to engage all credible threats. Furthermore, missile defense should be thought of as one part of a larger "missile defeat complex," he added.

☆ Big Oil rakes in record profit haul of nearly $200 billion, fueling calls for higher taxes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Exxon Mobil's 2022 haul of $56 billion marked a historic high for the Western oil industry. Chicago Tribune | Tribune News Service | Getty ImagesThe West's five largest oil companies raked in combined profits of nearly $200 billion in 2022, intensifying calls for governments to impose tougher windfall taxes. Altogether, the five Big Oil companies reported combined profits of $196.3 billion last year, more than the economic output of most countries. His comments came shortly after Shell reported its highest-ever annual profit of nearly $40 billion, comfortably surpassing its previous record of $28.4 billion in 2008. watch nowThe CEO of Saudi Aramco, the world's largest energy company, has previously warned about the dangers of pressuring oil companies through higher taxes.

☆ The Paradox of Prosecuting Domestic Terrorism
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( James Verini | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +52 min

The preventive approach to domestic terrorism goes back even further than the 1990s and it begins with the basic police work and surveillance of the joint terrorism task forces. In fact, there is no section of the U.S. Criminal Code that criminalizes domestic terrorism as such. The absence of clear law around domestic terrorism, and the imperatives of prevention, mean that investigators and prosecutors who work domestic terrorism cases must focus on more common charges: weapons violations, illegal drug possession, burglary, aiding and abetting and so forth. But this was not enough to overrule the fear of domestic terrorism that was gripping the nation and that hung in the courtroom. It reflected the legal paradoxes of the case and domestic terrorism law in general or, maybe more accurately, the absence of it.

☆ North Korea's antique fighter jets are still keeping the US and South Korea on their toes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Benjamin Brimelow | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Even with an aging fleet, Pyongyang has been able to catch the attention of South Korea and the US. On October 6, 12 North Korean jets were detected practicing air-to-ground attacks near the DMZ, prompting South Korea to scramble 30 of its fighters. On November 4, 80 South Korean fighters were scrambled after 180 North Korean planes were detected on South Korean radar. The activity and scale is unusual given North Korea's air force is widely regarded as the weakest branch of North Korea's military. South Korean troops guard a MiG-19 used by a North Korean pilot to defect to South Korea in May 1996.

☆ Fact Check-Chinese study made coronavirus antibodies in eggs by vaccinating hens
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A 2021 study in China investigated antibodies generated by immunizing hens with a specific protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and found that the antibodies extracted from yolks could neutralize some versions of the coronavirus tested in the lab. The results do not mean that all egg yolks contain coronavirus-neutralizing antibodies or that eating eggs would prevent COVID-19, as suggested in some widely shared posts online. Posts refer to a study originally published in November 2020 (here), which analyzed immunoglobulin Y (or lgY) antibodies generated in the yolks of eggs from laying hens that had been immunized with the “spike” protein from SARS-CoV-2. Not all eggs, however, contain the specific antibodies that neutralize SARS-CoV-2, Rodrigo Gallardo, professor in poultry medicine at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, told Reuters via email. A study in China immunized hens to generate antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in their eggs, it did not find that all eggs contain such antibodies or that eggs have any effect on COVID.

☆ Inspired by dream of flying, Cambodian man builds 'airplane house'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Chantha Lach | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] The "airplane house" built by Chrach Pov is seen in Siem Reap province, Cambodia, February 2, 2023. REUTERS/Cindy LiuSIEM REAP, Cambodia, Feb 6 (Reuters) - A Cambodian man, inspired by a lifelong dream of flying, has built a home that is modelled on a plane, complete with a fuselage-like structure standing 6 metres (19.69 ft) above the ground housing his two bedrooms and bathrooms. The concrete construction, which has mock engines, wings and a tailplane, was built by Chrach Pov, 43, and has created a stir in the district of Siem Reap province where he lives. The construction worker plans to build a coffee shop next to his home for visitors and still hopes to be able to fly on a real plane one day, despite admitting he is nervous about actually flying. Reporting by Chantha Lach Writing by Ed Davies Editing by Shri NavaratnamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Decades after winning the world's first jet-powered dogfights, US fighter pilots are still flexing their muscles over Korea
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Benjamin Brimelow | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

That November, US Air Force and Navy pilots notched the first victories between jet-powered aircraft. The first, involving an Air Force Lockheed F-80C Shooting Star piloted by Lt. Russel Brown, occurred on November 8, 1950. Air superiorityUS Air Force F-80C fighters return from a mission in August 1952. The Air Force's 'first'A US Air Force F-80C armed with napalm bombs takes off from a Korean airfield in February 1951. The exercise, called Vigilant Storm, involved roughly 100 US aircraft and some 140 South Korean aircraft flying more than 1,600 sorties.

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