Biden's border authority

Plus, the IRS takes on TurboTax and French farmers besiege Paris [View this email in your browser]( [Brand Logo]( Biden border power, IRS freebies and Paris under siege   Good morning, If death and taxes are really the only sure things in life, it seems unfair you have to pay dearly for both of them. Yes, governments need tax revenue to provide essential services, and funeral homes and casket-makers are businesses after all. But not everyone needs to shell out $100-plus for someone to prepare their taxes. The IRS is trying out a free solution this tax season. If you are disquieted by the idea that the government may actually fix a problem, take comfort that the only thing as certain as mortality and taxation is Congress failing to update America's immigration laws. Peter Weber The Week Digital     Today's politics story [Can Biden 'shut down the border' without new laws?]( What happened? President Joe Biden endorsed a bipartisan Senate immigration deal, saying if it "were the law today, I'd shut down the border right now." House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) claimed Biden already has that authority and said the unreleased Senate bill is "dead on arrival in the House." Former President Donald Trump is urging Republicans to kill any border deal. Who said what? The Senate bill would "give me as president, the emergency authority to shut down the border until it could get back under control," Biden said over the weekend. "Any border 'shutdown' authority that ALLOWS even one illegal crossing is a non-starter," Johnson tweeted Monday. "The number must be ZERO." The commentary Johnson's demand is "impossible," said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick at the American Immigration Council. "No nation in human history has ever been able to stop every unlawful border crossing," including America. "Biden could, in theory, strongly limit asylum claims and restrict crossings," The Associated Press reported, but that would "almost certainly be challenged in court" and "blocked or curtailed dramatically without a congressional law backing the new changes." What next? Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Sunday that the bill could be ready for Senate consideration this week, and then we'll see whether there are "enough Republicans in the Senate who want to fix the problem at the border."     Today's TAX story [IRS begins rollout of free tax tool]( What happened?The Internal Revenue Service kicked off tax season on Monday by inviting taxpayers in 12 pilot states to try out Direct File, its new, free tax-filing tool. Who said what? Direct File's rollout is "starting small" so the IRS "can identify and resolve issues" as taxpayers sign up, said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. It's already "an impressive product," said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Tania Mercado, a spokesperson for TurboTax-maker Intuit, called Direct File "a thinly veiled scheme" to use "billions of taxpayer dollars" to create "something already completely free of charge today." The commentary It's about time the IRS embraced "21st century tax administration," said Nina Olson with the Center for Taxpayer Rights. Direct File "does the job for the most basic of basic tax returns," Richard Rubin and Ashlea Ebeling wrote at The Wall Street Journal. But it "isn't a TurboTax killer yet." What next? The IRS says it will continue improving and expanding Direct File so long as there's steady funding, The Associated Press reported. But the agency's budget "is under constant threat of cuts" from congressional Republicans.     Today's INTERNATIONAL Story [French farmers encircle Paris]( What happened? More than 1,000 tractors blocked the main roads in and out of Paris on Monday as farmers furious at French and European rules said they intend to "starve Parisians." Who said what? "We're here because we've had enough," said Robin Leduc, who runs a 200-hectare farm in Canly. "We want to defend our pay, we've had enough of all the excessive red tape that's even worse in France than the rest of Europe." The commentary French farmers complain that their wages are too low and say they are being undercut by imports and onerous regulations from both the French government and the European Union. Their demands are "so varied," however, that they "defy easy solutions," said The Telegraph. What next? The "intensifying standoff" has become the "first major test" for France's newly appointed prime minister, Gabriel Attal, The New York Times reported. He faces a determined opponent, added The Associated Press. The farmers' tents and large reserves of food and water signal their intention to "stay at barricades" if the government refuses to "cede ground."     On this day January 30, 1948 Mahatma Gandhi, the father of modern India, is assassinated at the age of 78. Known for his nonviolent protest movement against British colonialism, Gandhi was shot and killed by Nathuram Godse, a disgruntled Hindu nationalist who disliked Gandhi’s support of Muslims. More than one million people attended Gandhi’s funeral.     TODAY’S newspaperS ['A clean energy paradise']( The deaths of three U.S. Army reservists in a Sunday drone strike in Jordan was due to a "mix-up" in which the enemy drone was confused for a U.S. drone arriving back at base around the same time, The Wall Street Journal reports on Tuesday's front page. USA Today reports that thanks to aggressive green targets and a massive new battery array, Hawaii is "quickly becoming a clean energy paradise." ► [See the newspaper front pages](     It's not all bad A wedding crasher is now part of the bride and groom's family. Matt and Cara run a TikTok account featuring videos of their cats. During their outdoor wedding ceremony, they heard meowing and saw a cat on a tree stump behind them. Since they are cat people, this "truly felt like a sign," Matt said. Venue staff later caught the kitty, and Matt and Cara immediately adopted her. "We knew we had to have her," they said.     Under the radar [A breakthrough in solar panel technology]( For a long time, the solar panel market was dominated by China, due largely to its control of the silicon supply chain. But the solar panel tides may be turning. Solar panels have traditionally been made with silicon, but Japanese engineers believe they have found an alternative "in a type of solar cell that looks and feels like camera film," according to The Wall Street Journal. Instead of silicon, the new cell uses perovskite, a crystalline structure formed by minerals that convert sunlight into electricity. Perovskite was previously used in tandem cells to boost the efficiency of glass-covered silicon panels. But new technology has allowed silicon-free perovskite cells to match traditional silicon-panel efficiency. The panels themselves are thin, light and flexible, unlike their silicon counterparts. "Let's say you live in an apartment and don't have your own roof. You can still put the perovskite cells on your balcony," Tsutomu Miyasaka, a Toin University of Yokohama professor who helped develope the new cells, told the Journal. "Think of [them] as a household appliance." Renewable energy has become "a geopolitical football," the Journal reported, with countries trying to dislodge China's dominance in the solar energy market. Japanese engineers believe their craftsmanship will give the country a competitive edge, partly because of how difficult it is to manufacture uniform super-thin perovskite layers. "The more difficult it is, the harder it will be for the Chinese to copy it," Miyasaka said.     Tall tale Polly want a new vocabulary … A gang of rude, crude and lewd parrots at Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in England are being placed with a flock of proper birds in the hope they'll stop swearing at guests. The parrots know every curse word in the book, and there's a sign near their habitat warning of their foul vocabularies. Park CEO Steve Nichols told NPR the parrots will "hopefully learn all the nicer sounds and words" in their new strait-laced environment.     Later today While Washington wrangles over how much Biden can actually do to stem the flow of migrants, Texas is demonstrating that miles of razor wire, shipping container walls and mass arrests don't seem to have much effect on migration numbers. But, as you can read in the The Week later today, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) border efforts are effective at threatening a constitutional crisis. Thanks for reading, Peter     Morning Report was written and edited by Catherine Garcia, Justin Klawans, Harold Maass and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek. Image credits, from top: Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images; Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images for Economic Security Project; Christian Liewig - Corbis / Getty Images; Illustration / Getty Images   © Future US, Inc • [theweek.com]( [Unsubscribe from this newsletter]( [Privacy Policy]( The Week is published by Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10036.