“Our task should be to free ourselves … by increasing our circle of compassion to involve all living creatures, all nature and its beauty.” Source: Nossa tarefa…por Einstein ✨ – Mágica Mistura
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(2) Global Céilí for UNICEF – Jiggy – YouTube
Tax Day Delayed to May 17, I.R.S. Says – The New York Times – Whew!
The Internal Revenue Service will again give Americans extra time to file their taxes as a result of the pandemic.
Instead of the usual April 15 deadline, filers will instead have until May 17, the agency said Wednesday, an extension that will ease the burden on filers dealing with the economic upheaval caused by the coronavirus, which has put millions out of work or caused their hours to be cut.
“This continues to be a tough time for many people, and the I.R.S. wants to continue to do everything possible to help taxpayers navigate the unusual circumstances related to the pandemic,” said Chuck Rettig, the I.R.S. commissioner.
IRS plans to push April 15 U.S. tax deadline to May 17

The IRS is planning to push back the deadline for the tax filing season about one month, to May 17 from April 15.
IRS to delay tax filing deadline to mid-May after chaotic pandemic year
The Internal Revenue Service is planning to delay the April 15 tax filing deadline by about one month, giving taxpayers additional time to file returns and pay any outstanding levies, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
The IRS is still figuring out what the final deadline will be. The agency is considering setting the filing deadline either on May 15 or May 17, according to two of the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly because the decision had not been finalized. May 15 is a Saturday and the IRS typically delays filing deadlines that fall on a weekend or holiday to the next business day.

By Allyson Versprille, Laura Davison and Saleha Mohsin | Bloomberg
The Internal Revenue Service is planning to delay the April 15 tax filing deadline by about one month, giving taxpayers additional time to file returns and pay any outstanding levies, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
The IRS is still figuring out what the final deadline will be. The agency is considering setting the filing deadline either on May 15 or May 17, according to two of the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly because the decision had not been finalized. May 15 is a Saturday and the IRS typically delays filing deadlines that fall on a weekend or holiday to the next business day.
The IRS and Treasury didn’t respond to requests to comment on the delay.
The filing extension would give taxpayers additional breathing room to meet their tax obligations in what is becoming one of the most complicated tax seasons in decades. The change would come after calls from accountants and leaders in Congress to delay the due date as new legislation and pandemic-related work changes disrupt taxpayer plans.
Among the changes this tax season are last-minute amendments to the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill signed into law earlier this month that give filers a new tax exemption on up to $10,200 of jobless benefits. The individual tax return, Form 1040, is also the mechanism for people to claim any missing $1,200 or $600 stimulus payments from last year.
Besides the disruptions from the pandemic, the changes in tax law will mean some filers will have to wait for updated forms, resubmit their returns, and some will need to consult a tax adviser on how to proceed if they’ve already filed.
House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, Representative Bill Pascrell, and Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, have asked IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig to delay the filing deadline, citing the importance of this tax season because of all the tax changes and coronavirus aid administered through the tax code.
The IRS, which has the administrative authority to delay tax deadlines without Congress, also extended the filing season last year at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of early March, the IRS has been behind last year’s metrics in the number of tax returns filed and processed and the number of refunds issued. The filing season, which began Feb. 12, started about two weeks later than usual, and has contributed to the slump.
The tax extension also comes as the IRS has been handed another big task: processing a third round of direct payments to households, this time for $1,400 each. The IRS said it has so far sent about 90 million payments totaling $242 billion.
(Updates with changes for this filing season starting in the fifth paragraph.)
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
ASIA/MYANMAR – New appeal from the Pope, Sister Ann Nu Twang: “He is close to our suffering people” – Agenzia Fides
Yangon (Agenzia fide) – “The words of Pope Francis comfort us at this time when we see our hearts broken by so much violence and suffering of innocent people. We even feel powerless and helpless in the face of the evil that continues. Our hope is placed in God and we ask for the help of the international community”. This is what a Catholic priest from the diocese of Yangon said to Agenzia Fides, preferring to remain anonymous for security reasons, after the new appeal from Pope Francis who, at the end of the General Audience on March 17, , mentioned Myanmar: “Once again, and with great sorrow – said the Pontiff – I feel it is urgent to mention the dramatic situation in Myanmar, where many people, especially the young, are losing their lives to offer hope to their country”. He continued, ideally referring to the gesture of Sister Ann Nu Tawng, a Catholic nun working in the city of Myitkyina, whose photos have been published in the media all over the world: “I too kneel in the streets of Myanmar and say: End the violence! I too reach out my arms and say: may dialogue prevail!”. Source: ASIA/MYANMAR – New appeal from the Pope, Sister Ann Nu Twang: “He is close to our suffering people” – Agenzia Fides
Some Long Covid-19 Patients Feel Better After Vaccine Doses – The New York Times
Judy Dodd began struggling with long Covid symptoms last spring — shortness of breath, headaches, exhaustion. Then she got the vaccine.
After her first Pfizer-BioNTech shot in late January, she felt so physically miserable that she had to be persuaded to get the second. For three days after that one, she also felt awful. But the fourth day, everything changed.
“I woke up and it was like ‘Oh what a beautiful morning,’” said Ms. Dodd, a middle-school teacher who is also an actor and director. “It was like I’d been directing ‘Sweeney Todd’ for months, and now I’m directing Oklahoma.”
Ms. Dodd, who continues to feel good, is among a number of people who are reporting that the post-Covid symptoms they’ve experienced for months have begun improving, sometimes significantly, after they got the vaccine. It’s a phenomenon that doctors and scientists are watching closely, but as with much about the yearlong coronavirus pandemic, there are many uncertainties.
Johnson wants to move on from Covid – 125,000 deaths shows why we need an inquiry | Boris Johnson | The Guardian
Sperm whales in 19th century shared ship attack information | Whales | The Guardian
Using newly digitised logbooks detailing the hunting of sperm whales in the north Pacific, the authors discovered that within just a few years, the strike rate of the whalers’ harpoons fell by 58%. This simple fact leads to an astonishing conclusion: that information about what was happening to them was being collectively shared among the whales, who made vital changes to their behaviour. As their culture made fatal first contact with ours, they learned quickly from their mistakes.
The hunters themselves realised the whales’ efforts to escape. They saw that the animals appeared to communicate the threat within their attacked groups. Abandoning their usual defensive formations, the whales swam upwind to escape the hunters’ ships, themselves wind-powered. ‘This was cultural evolution, much too fast for genetic evolution,’ says Whitehead.

And in turn, it evokes another irony. Now, just as whales are beginning to recover from the industrial destruction by 20th-century whaling fleets – whose steamships and grenade harpoons no whale could evade – they face new threats created by our technology. ‘They’re having to learn not to get hit by ships, cope with the depredations of longline fishing, the changing source of their food due to climate change,’ says Whitehead. Perhaps the greatest modern peril is noise pollution, one they can do nothing to evade.
Source: Sperm whales in 19th century shared ship attack information | Whales | The Guardian
Activists call on Coca-Cola, Delta to fight Republican anti-voting bills in Georgia | Georgia | The Guardian
Groups say companies’ support would help kill measures which aim to cut early voting, require voter ID and limit ballot drop boxes
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