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NPR's David Welna reports on today's action in the House of Representatives on the proposed repeal of estate taxes. The plan would reduce the top rate of 55 percent to 39 percent by 2010, and then phase it out altogether in 2011. It's a move that is expected to cost $193 billion over the next 10 years.

The Chinese detention of a U.S. spy plane and its crew is affecting every aspect of the two nations' often fragile relationship. And that may create an opportunity for supporters of Taiwan, the offshore island state that China considers a wayward province. The budding crisis may be a boon to members of Congress who want the U.S. to sell state-of-the-art weapons to Taiwan. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

The idea of one nation publicly apologizing to another is a relatively recent development in international diplomacy. Robert Siegel talks about it with Elazar Barkan, chair of the cultural studies department at Claremont Graduate University and author of The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices. (4:00) The Guilt of Nations is published by W.W. Norton & Company.

The noted sleight-of-hand artist, who died in 2018, was also a scholar of con games and oddities. This week, Sotheby's auctioned off part of Jay's 10,000-item collection. Originally broadcast in 1998.

Scolari, who died Oct. 22, played opposite Tom Hanks in the ABC sitcom Bosom Buddies, and later co-starred in Newhart. He won an Emmy for his role on Girls. Originally broadcast in 1988.

Blues musician John Hammond has spent his entire career covering the works of great American songwriters like Chuck Berry, Willie Dixon and Mose Allison. For his latest project, Wicked Grin, Hammond selected twelve songs by Tom Waits. In an unconventional twist, he asked Waits himself to produce the record. Liane speaks with John Hammond about his friendship with Tom Waits and the recording sessions that yielded this CD.

In a special production for the first day of April, Dan Evans "reports" from Los Angeles on a group of people who love to sing, but who are not necessarily bound by conventional rules of tonality. They are the Note Floaters of America, those rare few who are courageous enough to belt out songs with gusto, despite a lack of pitch, melody, rhythm, or any musical sense whatsoever. (Happy April first, brave listeners!) (4:30) (NOTE: This piece was produced by Dan Evans for Blowfish Productions

Breaking his long-running streak, Weekend Edition Sunday's movie music maven Andy Trudeau finally picked the winning score from the crop of Academy Award nominees. He and Liane Hansen deconstruct the decision and look ahead to soundtrack prospects for the coming year.

Adapted from Nella Larsen's 1929 novella, Netflix's new film centers on two Black women, one of whom pretends to be white; the other could pretend, but chooses not to.

NPR's Beijing Correspondent Rob Gifford talks with host Lisa Simeone about today's mid-air collision between a U.S. Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese aircraft. The Chinese plane went down, and the pilot is missing. The U.S. plane made an emergency landing; all 24 members of the crew are reported safe.