Tax Credits, Brittney Griner, & Top Google Searches
December 9, 2022
Do It For The Kids
Last year, the Democrat-controlled Congress and Joe Biden’s White House used their time in power to pass an expanded tax credit, granting the poorest parents in the U.S. a little extra budget room to the tune of a few thousand dollars per year. This led to a massive drop in the child poverty rate, which was cut by nearly half to its lowest-ever level. Unfortunately for the country’s parents and children, Republicans and a lone Democratic senator objected to extending the tax credit, allowing it to expire in January of this year. Unsurprisingly, 3.7 million children began slipping back into poverty thanks to this move – but hey, at least government spending is down by a fraction of a percent!
As Democratic legislators try to pass a flurry of legislation before their terms expire this year and Congress turns a bit redder in 2023, a group of left-leaning lawmakers is looking to re-enact the child tax credit. Republicans want to extend corporate tax breaks created under the Trump administration, but Democrats are looking to trade votes for that extension for support of bringing back the child tax credit. “We should not provide any of these extensions unless it’s coupled with an extension and expansion of the child tax credit,” said Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro. “If businesses and corporations can get the benefit of this, working families, middle-class families, vulnerable families, need to have a child tax credit.” (Guardian)
The end of the year is upon us, and we’ve been reflecting and reminiscing about 2022 in recent days. We thought that you might want to do the same, so we’ve put together a short survey where you can vote on winners for each category. Your vote, of course, does not indicate an endorsement of a person or moment, but simply to find out what you think was the most important — for better or for worse. We’ll be sending out the results on December 29th, over our holiday break from 12/19 – 1/1 (don’t worry, we’ll remind you of those dates again).
Secondly, Tim, our publisher, is a big U.S. Army fan after having graduated from West Point and then serving in the Army. This weekend is the big game, so he wanted to provide the following public service announcement: Go Army, Beat Navy! He shared this news yesterday via a Linkedin post and already the Navy trolls have popped up! 🙂
If you are a Naval Academy grad or a Navy veteran, please don’t unsubscribe – and feel free to gloat in the editor’s inbox if they win.
Some Chicanery With A Coal Mine
- Despite the protests of a number of high-ranking officials, the U.K.’s government has approved a plan to build a brand-new coal mine in northwestern England’s Cumberland county. The Whitehaven coal mine is projected to create around 500 jobs for the surrounding area – oh, and about 9 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year.
- The officials pushing the plant say that the development will create jobs and secure key fossil fuels needed for British steel production, but 85% of the coal it produces is actually expected to be exported. The mine has been hotly contested for over a year now, with Cumbria County Council waffling on approving the plan before kicking the decision up to the national government. At one point, two teenage activists held a 10-day hunger strike as part of a wave of protests against a prior approval.
- Paul Ekins, a Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, said that the mine’s approval “trashes the U.K.’s reputation as a global leader on climate action and opens it up to well-justified charges of hypocrisy – telling other countries to ditch coal while not doing so itself.” He also noted that the mine ”will become stranded in the 2030s as the steel industry globally moves away from coal.” (CNN)
Maladjusted Malware Attack
- According to Google’s Threat Analysis Group, North Korean hackers exploited this Halloween’s crowd crush incident in Seoul to distribute malware. The hackers embedded malware in Microsoft Office documents that they pretended were a government report on the crowd crush incident, which involved the deaths of over 150 people during a celebration in a narrow alleyway.
- “This incident was widely reported on, and the lure takes advantage of widespread public interest in the accident,” read the Threat Analysis Group’s report. Google stated that a North Korean hacker group named APT37 was responsible for the malware attack. The group largely targets South Koreans, North Korean defectors, policymakers, journalists, and human rights activists.
- At the moment, Google says it’s unsure of what the malware was supposed to achieve, and Microsoft patched out the exploits on November 8. In the past, the U.N. has accused North Korea of using funds stolen through hacking incidents like this to fund its military programs and get around sanctions. Daily Pnut staff surmise that Google was quick to find and publicize this malware given the threat was due to a competitor’s software. (Reuters)
Additional World News
- Iran hangs protester in first known execution related to mass demonstrations (CNN)
- M23 rebels killed at least 131 civilians in eastern DRC, UN says (Al Jazeera)
- China buys Russian oil at multi-month low discounts, brushes off price cap (Reuters)
- Putin says Ukraine fight is taking longer than expected (NBC)
- Oil tankers are getting stuck in the Black Sea. That could become a problem (CNN)
- Indonesia releases convicted Bali bomber Umar Patek (Al Jazeera)
- Animal eye packages sent to embassies ‘from German address’ (BBC)
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” – Martin Luther
Freeing A Different Brittney
- President Biden was able to announce a huge win on Thursday when he and his administration secured the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has been wrongfully detained in Russia for ten months. Griner was released in a prisoner swap that involved Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout – terrifyingly, he’s also known as the “Merchant of Death” – but Biden lamented that they were not also able to secure the release of Paul Whelan. The White House had quite a prisoner’s dilemma here.
- When talking about Whelan, Biden said, “This was not a choice of which American to bring home. Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.” Cherelle added that she and Brittney “will remain committed to the work of getting every American home, including Paul, whose family is in our hearts today.”
- Biden made the announcement of the swap at the White House alongside Griner’s wife, Cherelle, saying, “She’s safe, she’s on a plane, she’s on her way home. After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under untolerable circumstances, Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should have been there all along.” (CNN)
No Longer Caste Aside
- Brown University became the first Ivy League university to mention casteism in its general policy this week, according to the Dalit civil rights organization Equality Labs, but is only the latest in a list of schools across the country to add caste protections to their nondiscrimination policies. The Providence, Rhode Island school said the policy will hopefully give Dalit students better options for reporting bias.
- Discrimination based on the caste system of social stratification often follows those from South Asian communities as they immigrate to the West, experts say. Sylvia Carey-Butler, Brown’s vice president for Institutional Equity and Diversity, said in a statement that the policy would have already protected students of all castes, but one student noted, “If you add caste to a nondiscrimination policy, now everybody that has to abide by that policy has to know what caste is.” We highly recommend Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. (NBC)
Additional USA News
- Chuck Schumer reelected as Senate majority leader (CNN)
- Florida Republican who sponsored ‘Don’t Say Gay’ indicted on Covid relief fraud charges (Politico)
- Off-duty FBI agent fatally shoots person during fight at crowded D.C. train station, police say (NBC)
- Ex-Border Patrol agent convicted of killing 4 women in Texas (NPR)
- Energy Department rule would cut government building emissions 90 percent (The Hill)
- Bill to Protect Same-Sex Marriage Rights Clears Congress (NYT, $)
- Arkansas city elects 18-year-old as youngest Black mayor in US (Guardian)
Searching For America’s Zeitgeist
- As the end of the year approaches, our urge to make year-in-review stories gets ever-stronger. This week, we’re taking a look at 2022’s American Google search trends to get a glimpse at the things Americans were interested in throughout the year.
- In terms of overall searches, Wordle fever reigned supreme this year, with the minigame sensation being the #1 Google search in the U.S. this year. Other top searches included celebrities we lost this year, like the late Queen (#4) and Betty White (#3), as well as Ukraine (#6) and the recent $2.04 billion lottery (“Mega Millions” ranked #7, and “Powerball numbers” came in at #8). As for the most searched living people this year, the Johnny Depp (#1) and Amber Heard (#3) trial dominated, with other controversial people like Will Smith (#2), Antonio Brown (#4), and Kari Lake (#5) rounding out the top 5.
- On the pop culture side of things, let’s first take a look at the year’s movie searches. Encanto (#1), Thor: Love and Thunder (#2), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (#8), and Turning Red (#10) were all Disney properties, but A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once (#5) also made a splash. Musically, Disney also dominated, with 3 of the top-10 most-searched songs coming from Encanto – We Don’t Talk About Bruno and Surface Pressure were the top two songs, and What Else Can I Do came in at #10. The list was also graced by a surprise musical appearance from British documentarian Louis Theroux, with his TikTok hit Jiggle Jiggle ranking as 2022’s #3 most-searched song. (NPR)
If you’re looking for films to watch in the coming weeks of holiday downtime, we have a few recommendations for you: Operation Mincemeat, Andor, Hustle (Adam Sandler showed once again he could be great in a serious movie, much like his roles in Punch-Drunk Love, Uncut Gems, and Hubie Halloween), and Confess, Fletch. Top Gun 2 and Devotion were not only great films, but Tim believes both of these Navy aviator movies saved Navy recruiting this year. In contrast, the Army failed miserably in recruiting. If you don’t trust our recommendations, check out the Rotten Tomatoes list of top films this year.
Additional Reads
- Why is there a children’s Tylenol shortage? Here’s what parents can do. (WaPo, $)
- Hawaii’s Big Island abuzz over simultaneous eruptions at Mauna Loa and Kilauea (ABC)
- Big cats: US Senate unanimously passes bill to curb private ownership (BBC)
- Nigeria to limit cash withdrawals to $225 a week (Al Jazeera)
- Elon Musk turns Twitter into ‘hotel’ for staff (BBC)
- Behind bars no longer, Albania’s last restaurant bear (Reuters)
- Frozen food named ‘dish of the year’ in Japan (CNN)