The Know Daily - Thursday 1 June 2023

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A new ‘try-before-you-fly’ scheme at George Best Belfast City Airport has been widely welcomed by families with autistic children. The Autism In The Air programme allows children with autism to get familiar with what it’s like to travel by plane, from going through mock airport security to boarding a grounded flight. Sounds like a pretty fly initiative!

💰 Is inheritance tax “morally wrong”?

A group of more than 50 Conservative MPs are calling on PM Rishi Sunak to abolish the UK’s controversial inheritance tax.

First things first - remind me how the tax works?
Inheritance tax is a tax on the estate (the property, money and possessions) of someone who’s died. It’s typically charged at 40%, although estates worth less than £325,000 are exempt. The threshold has been set at that level since 2010, and is frozen until 2028.

“When the tax was first introduced it was intended to affect only the very wealthy,” said The Guardian. “But the rise in the value of homes, particularly in the south-east of England, has brought more families into the net in recent decades.”

Got it. So what are the MPs calling for?
The Conservative Growth Group, a caucus of 55 MPs allied to former PM Liz Truss, is championing the campaign to abolish the tax, The Times has reported.

Former home secretary Priti Patel has condemned inheritance tax as “regressive and punitive”, while Nadhim Zahawi has labelled it “morally wrong”. “It also creates all sorts of inefficient and damaging distortions in our personal finances, and the wider economy,” the former chancellor wrote in a piece in today’s Daily Telegraph.

These points of view are in opposition to the argument that this tax addresses the inherent unfairness of inheritance and encourages the wealthy to spend their money during their lifetimes - consumption which in turn “helps the economy”, said Yahoo Finance.

What happens next?
According to The Telegraph, Sunak is reportedly considering slashing inheritance tax ahead of the next election, mindful of polling which shows that half of the general public believe it to be unfair.

✈️ The problem with flying pigs

Airlines are increasingly turning to fuel made from animal fat as a greener source of power - but a new study has warned that it could end up being worse for the environment.

Wait - animal fat is used to make fuel?
You bet. The use of animal fat in biodiesel has increased by forty times since 2006, and demand is set to triple by 2030 compared to 2021, according to new research by campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E).

In recent years, airlines have found themselves under increasing pressure to find greener sources of power - and because the fat of dead pigs, cattle and chicken is considered a by-product of the meat industry, jet fuel made from the material has a much lower carbon footprint.

So what’s the downside?
According to T&E, there are simply not enough animals being slaughtered each year to meet airlines’ growing demand (the group’s calculations suggest a flight from Paris to New York would need the fat of 8,800 dead pigs).

T&E fears that the scarcity of animal fat could force other sectors - such as cosmetics or pet food - to use palm oil in their products instead, which is a major driver of deforestation and generator of carbon emissions.

“Dead animals don’t grow on trees, so if aviation suddenly wants to use a lot of animal fats in its fuels, it can’t be used by other sectors," Matt Finch from T&E told Sky News. According to Finch, an increased use in palm oil would be “the worst environmental outcome possible”.

So what’s the solution?
The BBC has reported that the government is considering banning or severely limiting the use of animal fats in the aviation industry as it is “worried about the unintended consequences”.

Finch told Sky that the most eco-friendly alternative is to replace jet fuel with a blend of “green” hydrogen, made from clean electricity - but it’s currently expensive and supplies are limited.

📺 And Just Like That: Kim Cattrall is set to reprise her role as Samantha Jones in the season two finale of HBO Max’s Sex and the City revival. She will appear in just one scene which will involve a phone conversation with Carrie Bradshaw.

📝 Covid inquiry vs. Cabinet Office: Boris Johnson says he has given the government all the WhatsApp messages, diaries and the 24 notebooks demanded by the Covid-19 inquiry. The Cabinet Office has confirmed that it received the material and “officials are looking at it”.

💊 Hope for migraine sufferers: Rimegepant, a new pill to combat migraines, could soon be available for thousands of people to take after it was recommended to the NHS in England.

🚬 Canadian cigarettes: Canada will soon start putting health warnings on individual cigarettes, making it the first country to do so. The messages will be in both English and French and have been described as a “world precedent-setting measure”.

⛰️ Everest rescue: Rare video footage has been captured of the moment Nepali guide Gelje Sherpa found a Malaysian climber in an area of Mount Everest called the “death zone”. He carried the climber down on his back.

Trivia answer: A) To retrieve his lost phone - more than two million litres of water were pumped from the reservoir on the government official’s order. The waterlogged phone was recovered but wouldn’t switch on.

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