Brazil Seeks to Calm Fears It Will Run Out of Beds for COP30 Climate Summit
'We will have enough properties, we will have enough rooms for everyone, there's no doubt about that,' said Valter Correia, Brazil's special secretary for COP30. 'We just need to find the right prices for each audience.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
38 minutes ago
- CNN
New tax law increases big beyond-the-grave tax break for the wealthy
The US federal estate tax has come a long way since 2000, when the exemption level was set at $675,000. The amount has increased greatly over the past quarter century. Americans who die in 2025 may leave behind tax free to their heirs up to $13.99 million. That exemption level had been set to expire after this year and snap back to a little more than $7 million per person. But that won't happen. Instead, starting in 2026, the exemption level will increase by roughly 7.2% to $15 million and adjust for inflation every year thereafter. That's courtesy of the One Big Beautiful Act that Republicans pushed through in time for President Donald Trump to sign it into law on his self-appointed deadline of July 4. Keep in mind, while not new, the exemption level is effectively doubled for married couples. That's because any unused exemption from the first spouse who dies can be passed to the surviving spouse, and the decedent's estate can pass to the widow or widower tax free. Then, when they die, they will get up to two times the individual exemption level. So that comes to $27.98 million tax free for couples this year and $30 million next year. (It's also worth noting that the estate tax exemption level is the same as the lifetime gift tax exemption level. That means essentially how much you're allowed to exempt from estate taxes at death is reduced by how much you gave away in gifts while you were alive.) The OBBA did not change the federal tax rates imposed on the taxable portion of estates. They're set on a graduated scale, from 18% to 40% with the initial portion above the exemption level taxed at 18%, the next portion at 20% and so on up to 40%, which is well below the 55% top rate that applied in 2001. Raising the exemption level to $15 million a person is likely to further reduce the already low share of estates subject to the estate tax. In 2001, roughly 2.1% of Americans who died left behind taxable estates — and that number dropped to just 0.07% in 2019, according to the Congressional Research Service. That share was expected to rise to 0.2% in 2026, had the exemption level snapped back to roughly $7 million as was scheduled. Despite those very tiny percentages, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the OBBA change will reduce federal revenue by nearly $212 billion over the next decade relative to what the law had called for before OBBA was enacted. Even if your estate or that of a loved one falls well below the federal exemption level, the estate may still be considered taxable in the state where a decedent was living when they died. As of this year, 12 states and the District of Columbia have an estate tax, according to the Tax Foundation. The states are: Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. The exemption levels and the tax rates imposed vary from state to state. In Massachusetts, for example, the exemption level is $2 million, and depending how much more an estate is worth above that threshold, it may be subject to a tax rate between 0.8% and 16%. In Washington, up to $3 million may be exempt from the state estate tax but rates run as high as 35% on the taxable portion of an estate.
Yahoo
41 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Non-Americans Are Sharing The Things They Actually Admire About America, And I Just Wiped A Single Tear From My Eye
Recently, I came across a thread from a now-deleted user on the popular Ask Reddit forum asking, "Non-Americans of Reddit, what is something about America you admire?" and the answers were so wholesome and positive, I had to share. There's so much to appreciate, and it's nice to take the time to do it! So, here are some of the best answers people had: 1."The Smithsonian Museums. Very cool and very fun to walk around and see. And they're free." Win McNamee / Getty Images, Kirkikis / Getty Images —u/GullibleIdiots "The Smithsonians are a treasure. I remember being astonished when I moved to another city and realized most museums require you to pay to go inside." —u/optsynsejo 2."National Parks." Francesco Riccardo Iacomino / Getty Images, Brian Evans / Getty Images/iStockphoto —u/Premier_Poutine "This. I've traveled the world pretty extensively; the National Park system is the most amazing undertaking I've ever seen. America has innumerable flaws, but preserving the most amazing places in the world was something the country got unquestionably right." —u/nutella-is-for-jerks Related: 3."Your wildlife. Lots of beasties on that continent." —u/TheLairdStewart98 4."If you guys want, you can go to pretty much any climate without a passport. You have tropical, desert, oceanside, lakeside, and mountain climates." Rebecca Harding / Getty Images, Alexandra Simone / Getty Images/Cavan Images RF —u/deleted 5."Drinking fountains everywhere. Nearly all public toilets are free." —u/bounded_operator 6."The amount of nature. Mountains, forests, valleys, deserts, waterfalls, etc. Where I live, we've got a few hills and there's no place anywhere in the country that is completely untouched or so far from civilization that you can't hear traffic." —u/BombBombBombBombBomb 7."Verbal communication skills. When people are interviewed on TV, they can really explain in detail what happened, and it is easily understood. It's like everyone has a communication major." "In Australia, we generally are really bad at this. For example, interviewing eye witnesses to a shark attack in Australia: 'Yeah, nah it was pretty bad!'" —u/Alpacamum 8."The scale and grandeur. I'm used to nature being small, but everything in America is bigger: bigger storms, bigger mountains, bigger horizons. Even the sky People in America are casually dealing with everything from alligators to bears, pitching tents on the sides of cliffs, and walking their dogs through literal wilderness; I genuinely feel like a hobbit watching Aragorn saunter through Middle Earth like it's nothing while I've never been beyond the end of Farmer Maggot's farm before. I love it." Jeff Manes / Getty Images/iStockphoto, New Line Cinema / Via —u/coffee_up "Funny you should mention the sky, I live on the Colorado Front Range, which is about 1,610 meters above sea level. On an unpolluted day, you can see every friggin detail of the cumulus clouds in bright white. It looks like a hyper-realistic painting." —u/Leucipuus1 Related: 9."It's so big. Like, to be real, if you wanna do a road trip that's like two weeks. Maybe more." —u/no_sarcasim "A friend of mine had some guests from the UK. They wanted to drive to Disneyland for the day. From Maryland. That is 4,400 km (2,734 miles) each way." —u/substantial-freud 10."Cornbread." Fox / Via —u/Jdawgred 11."The arts. Jazz, rhythm and blues, and the early rock and roll that inspired the British Invasion. The authors. The films." Paramount Pictures / Via Bettmann / Bettmann Archive —u/LoudTsu 12."King's Hawaiian sweet rolls." —u/rhonda1973 "I use those to make my compound-butter garlic bread after years of using baguettes. GAME CHANGER." —u/dramboxf Related: 13."NASA is America's best PR. Sure, they could really use triple the budget to seriously get things done, but what they do is admired globally." —u/alltherobots 14."Southern cuisine, from BBQ all the way to Creole type guys know how to eat down there." —u/I_hate_traveling 15."Films and TV shows." Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images, Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images —u/LaptopGeek92 16."I always hear complaints about the portion sizes, which is fair, they're big. But we gotta give America credit for how socially acceptable it is to take the leftover food home. As a frugal Dutch person, this mesmerizes me, and I'm very sad this is not as acceptable here." —u/MarieLoew 17."How madly diverse it is. Admittedly, I've only seen it on TV, but the fact that the Bronx and Texas are in the same country is mind-boggling." —u/cdbman 18."I love how spread the infrastructure is across the country. Literally, massive multinational companies are headquartered in so many smaller cities. Manufacturing can occur in even more towns. Here in Australia, our population is so concentrated in our three biggest cities, it's difficult for big businesses to survive elsewhere, so they move to the big cities and perpetuate the problem. Half our population is in those three cities." —u/stupidperson810 19."I'm from Portugal and living in the US right now. One thing that really impressed me when I got here was how green the US is, and how many trees they have." —u/jpereira73 Related: 20."How the national identity is so culturally mixed. It seems like if you move to France, you don't become French; you just become a foreigner. But everyone who lives in America at all is American." —u/ITheReader 21."Fruity pebbles." —u/Z00TH0RNZ 22."I like how open-minded the people are and how much they seem to enjoy varied interests. I've found in my country, we tend to be pretty judgmental of anything we aren't used to seeing, and most people have basically the same hobbies." —u/purple-nomad 23."Americans always know how to get a conversation going! 'Hey, where are you from?' and then they are genuinely interested in hearing the answer, even if perhaps they've never heard of that place. They are great at small talk, and friendly (doesn't matter if it's 'fake' sometimes, e.g., the server in a restaurant, it is still a skill to be that friendly and welcoming, in my opinion). They make people feel like a million bucks." —u/BaileysBaileys "I waited tables for 20 years, and I loved talking to people visiting from other countries. Chances are I'm never going to be able to visit where you're from, and I was genuinely interested in what your lives are like there. I also wanted to make sure you were enjoying your time in our country and recommending amazing must-see places in our area. We genuinely want you to enjoy yourselves." —u/dorkmagnet123 24."Some of the best roller coasters on Earth." —u/Dr_Skeleton finally: "New York City. Hot Dogs. Your friendliness. Hollywood. Yellowstone. Baseball. Ford GT. Road trips. Coca-Cola. NASA. Southern BBQ. Burgers. Yosemite. Your infectious love of the outrageous. Jaws. Your love of English accents ;). Harrison Ford. Rock and fuckin' roll. Nike. Magic Mountain. Pamela Anderson. Red Vines. The video game and animation industries. Dr Pepper. Maine lobster rolls. Skateboarding. Ralph Lauren. The Sopranos. Jack FM. Baskin-Robbins. Car park cookouts. Wakeboarding. Ruby's Diner. Long Island (Iced Tea). Eddie Murphy. Technological innovation. Soul. Southern California. Star Wars. Ford Broncos. Key lime pie." Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images, PhotoQuest / Getty Images, Anthony Neste / Getty Images —u/liam_crean It's kinda nice hearing all these positives, IMO. What do you think? Tell me about it in the comments! Note: some comments have been edited for length and/or clarity. Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds:
CNN
43 minutes ago
- CNN
New tax law increases big beyond-the-grave tax break for the wealthy
The US federal estate tax has come a long way since 2000, when the exemption level was set at $675,000. The amount has increased greatly over the past quarter century. Americans who die in 2025 may leave behind tax free to their heirs up to $13.99 million. That exemption level had been set to expire after this year and snap back to a little more than $7 million per person. But that won't happen. Instead, starting in 2026, the exemption level will increase by roughly 7.2% to $15 million and adjust for inflation every year thereafter. That's courtesy of the One Big Beautiful Act that Republicans pushed through in time for President Donald Trump to sign it into law on his self-appointed deadline of July 4. Keep in mind, while not new, the exemption level is effectively doubled for married couples. That's because any unused exemption from the first spouse who dies can be passed to the surviving spouse, and the decedent's estate can pass to the widow or widower tax free. Then, when they die, they will get up to two times the individual exemption level. So that comes to $27.98 million tax free for couples this year and $30 million next year. (It's also worth noting that the estate tax exemption level is the same as the lifetime gift tax exemption level. That means essentially how much you're allowed to exempt from estate taxes at death is reduced by how much you gave away in gifts while you were alive.) The OBBA did not change the federal tax rates imposed on the taxable portion of estates. They're set on a graduated scale, from 18% to 40% with the initial portion above the exemption level taxed at 18%, the next portion at 20% and so on up to 40%, which is well below the 55% top rate that applied in 2001. Raising the exemption level to $15 million a person is likely to further reduce the already low share of estates subject to the estate tax. In 2001, roughly 2.1% of Americans who died left behind taxable estates — and that number dropped to just 0.07% in 2019, according to the Congressional Research Service. That share was expected to rise to 0.2% in 2026, had the exemption level snapped back to roughly $7 million as was scheduled. Despite those very tiny percentages, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the OBBA change will reduce federal revenue by nearly $212 billion over the next decade relative to what the law had called for before OBBA was enacted. Even if your estate or that of a loved one falls well below the federal exemption level, the estate may still be considered taxable in the state where a decedent was living when they died. As of this year, 12 states and the District of Columbia have an estate tax, according to the Tax Foundation. The states are: Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. The exemption levels and the tax rates imposed vary from state to state. In Massachusetts, for example, the exemption level is $2 million, and depending how much more an estate is worth above that threshold, it may be subject to a tax rate between 0.8% and 16%. In Washington, up to $3 million may be exempt from the state estate tax but rates run as high as 35% on the taxable portion of an estate.
