Nike Hasn’t Paid Income Taxes in Three Years, and Other News

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Thanks to a legal loophole, Nike hasn’t paid a single cent in income taxes in three years.

Nike is one of several large American corporations that has avoided paying federal income tax over the past three years thanks to a 2017 bill that reduced the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent. Even further reductions were achieved through legal deductions and exemptions that were written into the tax code—loopholes that allowed Nike to avoid paying any income tax whatsoever. In a recent tweet, Bernie Sanders put it into perspective: “If you paid $120 for a pair of Nike Air Force 1 shoes, you paid more to Nike than it paid in federal income taxes over the past three years, while it made $4.1 billion in profits and Nike’s founder, Phil Knight, became over $23 billion richer.” 

Prince Harry and William reunite to agree on the design for a statue of Princess Diana.

Following an explosive interview in which Meghan Markle and Prince Harry told Oprah Winfrey all about the insidious inner workings of the Royal Family, signs of healing may be underway. Princes Harry and William have reportedly reunited to sign off on the final design of a statue of their late mother, Princess Diana, who would have turned 60 this year. A source close to the sculptor, Ian Rank-Broadley, told The Sun that “[the design] will have been signed off by William and Harry. I know he did work closely with the boys and I think it will be incredible.” The brothers had previously established a working committee to oversee the project. 

GM unveils the first all-electric Hummer more than a decade after discontinuing the brand. 

Part of the automaker’s plan to have 30 EVs by 2025, the gas-guzzling icon is returning in 2024—only this time it will run on GM’s new Ultium battery technology. The Ultium Drive System packs an estimated 830 horsepower and 11,500 pound-feet of torque and can hit 0-60-mph in about 3.5 seconds with the Hummer’s “Watts to Freedom” acceleration mode. The announcement came in a commercial film narrated by LeBron James during the NCAA Final Four.

Winfred Rembert, whose vivid leather art told the story of the Jim Crow South, dies at 75. 

Known for vivid leather artworks that depicted painful moments from his life, Winfred Rembert survived a near-lynching and seven years in prison to become an artist at the age of 51. Carving figures into leather with blades of ivory and a mallet, a skill he picked up behind bars, Rembert’s pieces show scenes of picking cotton, inmates hammering rocks, and an empty desk in his school classroom, a reference to his childhood when he was assigned to keep the potbelly stove filled with wood instead of learn to read and write.

Milan will welcome a green residential tower by Diller Scofidio Renfro and Stefano Boeri.

The Porta Nuova Gioia district in Milan will soon sport a green residential tower designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Stefano Boeri Architetti. The two firms won the competition for Pirelli 39, a mixed-use tower designed as part of a bigger renovation effort for an existing building that will be connected by a floating base that acts as a greenhouse bridge. When complete, the project will host public educational events and programs, as well as Milan’s Biblioteca Degli Alberi (“Library of Trees”). “This project will reinvigorate the iconic former Pirellino building, creating a new tower that mixes architecture and nature to create a green space that’s open to the whole city,” Boeri says. “In such a difficult period, this project relaunches the vision of a forward-looking Milan and bravely faces the great challenges of the climate crisis.” 

In a sign of climate change, Japan’s cherry blossoms peak on the earliest date in 1,200 years.

The cherry blossoms in Kyoto, Japan, peaked on Friday, the earliest date in more than 1,200 years of records. The record bloom fits into a long-term pattern toward earlier spring flowering, which experts suggest is a compelling indicator of the looming climate crisis. Though this year’s peak bloom date of March 26 surpasses the previous record holder of March 27, 1409, the long-term record dates back to 812, not too long after Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. 

Today’s attractive distractions:

Cindy Sherman translates her self-portraiture into tapestries for the first time.

This phone case gives your device the satisfying texture of a cheese grater.

In a case of life imitating art imitating art, SNL’s NFT sketch is now an NFT…

…while David Hockney thinks NFTs are simply for “crooks and swindlers.”