NEW YOR K | DC EDITION
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In the News
NEWS
Kansas lawmakers have
voted to rescind the state’s
coronavirus mask mandate.
... A2
The United States has be-
come the first nation to inocu-
late 100 million people with at
least one dose of COVID-19
vaccine, the CDC says. ... A5
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds
has signed legislation allow-
ing residents to buy and carry
guns without permits. ... A7
A coalition of 22 states is
calling on a federal court to
rule against California’s at-
tempt to ban gun magazines
that hold more than 10 bul-
lets. ... A2
A group of Democratic gov-
ernors is pressuring President
Joe Biden to lift a cap on state
and local tax deductions. ...A6
Almost all Facebook and
Twitter employee and com-
mittee campaign contributions
went to Democrats serving on
House oversight committees,
a group says. ...A4
President Joe Biden’s
policies did nothing to ac-
celerate a school reopening
trend that was already un-
derway when he took office,
data show. ... A7
The Pakistan government
is struggling to stop the ille-
gal trade of Iranian oil across
the country’s restive western
border. ... A10
Jordanian Deputy Prime
Minister Ayman Safadi says
that King Abdullah’s half-
brother and former crown
prince, Prince Hamza, spoke
with foreign parties over a
plot to destabilize the coun-
try. ... A11
Pharmaceutical giant
Johnson & Johnson says
that it’s taking charge of a
Baltimore manufacturing
plant where 15 million doses
of its COVID-19 vaccine were
spoiled in March. ... A8
CHINA
The Chinese Communist
Party has been imposing
mandatory COVID-19 vac-
cination on the public, amid
concerns over vaccine effi-
cacy and health effects. ... A9
Chinese authorities are at-
tempting to collect the per-
sonal data of overseas Falun
Gong practitioners who fled
the regime’s persecution.
... A9
BUSINESS
Despite a surge in U.S. hir-
ing in March, many people
can’t take jobs due to fear of
the pandemic and a lack of
affordable child care. ... A17
OPINION
Josh Hammer: The Coalition
of the Un-Woke...A13
Wesley J. Smith: Boycott the
All-Star Game!...A14
Alexander Liao: Who Actu-
ally Benefits From the ‘Stop
Asian Hate’ Movement?...A16
LIFESTYLE
Members of this traditional
people live a lifestyle rooted
in a deep connection to the
natural world. ...B1
Narcissism is not driven by
an inflated sense of self, but
rather the opposite, say re-
searchers. ...B8
DON’T DELAY.
SUBSCRIBE TODAY.
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Published in New York,
Washington, Houston, Chicago,
Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
| M O N D A Y, A P R I L 5 , 2 0 21
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp greets supporters after speaking about Major League Baseball’s decision
GEORGIA to pull the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta, at the state Capitol in Atlanta on April 3, 2021.
Georgia Gov. Says Election Reforms
Worth the Boycotts, Lawsuits
Brian Kemp’s comments come after Major League Baseball vowed
to move its All-Star Game and draft out of Atlanta
BY JANITA KAN
G
eorgia Gov. Brian Kemp
says he’ll stand his
ground in response to
corporate backlash over
a newly enacted law seeking to
advance the integrity and fairness
of elections in the state following
the election rule changes made
during the pandemic that led to
controversy surrounding the 2020
election result.
HONG KONG
7 Street Stands
Exposing CCP
Sabotaged in
Hong Kong
in 24-Hour
Period
BY RITA LI
Seven public information stands
exposing the Chinese regime’s per-
secution of the spiritual practice
Falun Gong were recently vandal-
ized over a 24-hour period in Hong
Kong. The local Falun Gong asso-
ciation believes that the vandals,
who used knives and spray paint
to damage signage at the stands,
were tied to the Chinese Commu-
nist Party (CCP).
From 11 a.m. local time on April
2, four masked perpetrators van-
dalized Falun Gong information
booths in the Hong Kong districts
of Mong Kok, Hung Hom, and Wan
Chai, tearing down banners and
slashing and pushing over boards
on display. They fled the scene
within minutes and without a word,
BORDER SECURITY
New Staff Deploy to Border Processing Facilities as Crisis Worsens
BY CHARLOTTE CUTHBERTSON
ARTESIA, N.M.—As illegal border
crossings continue to escalate, a
crop of newly trained processing
coordinators are being sent to El
Paso and the Rio Grande Valley
in Texas to help get Border Patrol
agents back out on the line.
The 39 Border Patrol processing
coordinators spent eight weeks
training in first aid, processing,
Continued on A4
Accuracy The Epoch Times was founded in 2000 as an independent newspaper with the goal to restore accuracy and
integrity in media. We have received numerous awards for our reporting, including from the Society of Professional
& Integrity Journalists, the Society for News Design, and the New York Press Association.
Truth & Tradition
“Free and fair elections are the
foundation of who we are as a
state and a nation. Secure, acces-
sible, fair elections are worth the
threats, they are worth the boycotts,
as well as the lawsuits,” Kemp told
reporters during a press conference
on April 3.
“I want to be clear. I will not be
backing down from this fight, and
neither are the people who are here
with me today.”
Continued on A2
SCREENSHOT VIA THE EPOCH TIMES
A Falun Gong information booth is van-
dalized in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok dis-
trict on April 2, 2021.
as recorded in a video filmed by a
passerby and uploaded on YouTube.
Falun Gong, also known as Fa-
lun Dafa, is a spiritual practice
that involves meditative exercises
and moral teachings based on the
principles of truthfulness, compas-
sion, and tolerance. Since 1999, ad-
herents of the practice have been
systematically persecuted by the
CCP, with millions detained in pris-
ons, labor camps, and other facili-
ties. There have been thousands of
reports of practitioners suffering
Continued on A10
Border Patrol processing coordinator trainees in Artesia, N.M., on April 1, 2021.
BRYNN ANDERSON/AP PHOTO
AP PHOTO/JOHN AMIS, FILE
Cardboard cutouts of fans in an other-
wise empty stadium face the field dur-
ing a baseball game in Atlanta on July
30, 2020.
CONGRESS
Senators Ask Big Firms to Reveal Details
on Foreign, Domestic Buyers of User Data
BY SAMUEL ALLEGRI
A bipartisan group of senators is
questioning eight major U.S. cor-
porations about the transmission
of American user data to foreign
bidders, usually used for digital
advertising.
“We write to seek information
about your company’s sharing of
Americans’ personal data in order
PANDEMIC
Rep. Lynch Urges Americans to Stop
Buying PPE From China
BY RYAN BAO
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-
Mass.) is calling on U.S.
companies and govern-
ment agencies to stop buy-
ing personal protective Rep. Stephen tual property,” said Lynch.
equipment (PPE) sourced Lynch
or produced in China.
(D-Mass.).
Reliance on China for
products to protect American citi- that’s been hostile to the interests
zens poses a risk to U.S. national se- of the United States.”
curity, Lynch said at a press confer- Continued on A5
CHARLOTTE CUTHBERTSON/THE EPOCH TIMES
VOL . X V I I I | NO. 2,932 $1.
FLORIDA
Florida Gov.
Declares State of
Emergency Near
Radioactive Leak
County officials evacuate
residents amid warning
that toxic pond could
collapse at ‘any time’
BY JACK PHILLIPS
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared
a state of emergency as county of-
ficials evacuated residents near
a phosphate processing plant over
the weekend. Officials warned that
a pond filled with toxic wastewater
could collapse “at any time.”
Saur cautioned that
‘structural collapse could
occur at any time.’
“A portion of the containment
wall at the leak site shifted later-
ally,” Manatee County Director of
Public Safety Jake Saur told WSTP
after a “significant leak” was dis-
covered at the Piney Point process-
ing plant. Saur further cautioned
that  “structural collapse could oc-
cur at any time.”
Officials on the night of April 3
and the next morning tried unsuc-
cessfully to repair the leak, the re-
port said. Crews used heavy equip-
ment to use rock and earth to “kind
of plug the hole in the dam” of the
breach, Manatee County Acting
County Administrator Scott Hopes
said. About 800 million gallons of
process water, rainwater runoff,
are kept in several retention ponds
near Highway 41.
DeSantis declared a state of emer-
gency around the area on April 3
“due to a possible breach of mixed
Continued on A6
to understand how that informa-
tion may be obtained and exploited
by foreign governments to the det-
riment of our national security,” the
letter, sent on April 1 by Sen. Ron
Wyden (D-Ore.), reads.
The senators seek information
specifically about the “real-time
bidding” process, which refers to
the milliseconds before ads are
Continued on A5
ence in Boston on March 30.
“We’ve got China hacking
federal agencies, hacking
our military, and hacking
our domestic companies.
We’ve had theft of intellec-
“We shouldn’t put our fu-
ture and our safety in the
hands of a government
US–MEXICO BORDER
SENATOR
ON VISITING
BORDER
PATROL
FACILITIES
“[Unaccompanied
minors] are crammed
in like sardines,” Sen. John
Barrasso said.
Read more on A4
A2 | NATION
Republican Lawmakers in Kansas
Revoke Mask Mandate
TOM OZIMEK
Kansas lawmakers voted along party lines
last week to rescind the state’s coronavirus
mask mandate despite a bid by Democratic
Gov. Laura Kelly’s attempts to extend it, be-
coming the latest Republican-led state to
refuse to extend or reimpose requirements
to wear facial coverings.
After the Kansas state legislature recently
approved a law permitting the Legislative
Coordinating Council—a legislative stand-
ing committee—to revoke executive orders,
the panel decided in a 5–2 party-line vote to
overturn the mask mandate immediately
after Kelly took executive action to prolong
the protocols.
“There is no worrying spike today, and no
circumstances which justify the continued
impositions ... of the governor’s overreaching
statewide mask mandate,” said state House
Speaker Pro Tem Blaine Finch, a Republican,
according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.
Democrats opposed a rollback, argu-
ing that it’s too soon given the emergence
of CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus
mutations and that the outbreak remains
a threat.
“It would be a big mistake to go backwards
right now,” said state House Minority Leader
Tom Sawyer, a Democrat, according to the
report. “Many states that have reduced some
of their restrictions are seeing a COVID tick
back upward. We don’t want to do that.”
New daily cases of COVID-19 in Kansas
are on a downtrend, according to data from
the state health department, falling to 85 on
April 1 from 226 on March 22.
In a statement after the council’s vote, Kelly
said she was “disappointed that Republican
leaders are more motivated by political pub-
licity stunts than working together to protect
Kansans and our economy.”
“I know that all of us are ready to get back
to normal, but wearing a face-covering will
help protect ourselves, our loved ones, and
our neighbors from the new COVID-19
strains that are wreaking havoc in other
states,” she said.
Both the Kansas state House and Senate
are GOP-controlled.
With the council’s decision, Kansas joins
18 other states that either revoked or never
imposed mask mandates, with governors in
Georgia Gov. Kemp: Election Reforms Worth the
Boycotts, Lawsuits
CONTINUED FROM A1
Over the past week, top executives from
several large corporations such as Coca-Co-
la, Citibank, and Delta Airlines have openly
taken a stance against the election reforms
aimed at protecting the sanctity of the bal-
lot box in the Peach State. Among them was
Major League Baseball (MLB), which vowed
to move its All-Star Game and 2021 draft out
of Atlanta in an effort to punish the state.
“Major League Baseball caved to fear and
lies from liberal activists. They ignored the
facts of our new Election Integrity Law and
they ignored the consequences of their deci-
sion on our local community,” Kemp said.
“In the middle of a pandemic, Major League
Baseball put the wishes of Stacey Abrams and
Joe Biden ahead of the economic wellbeing of
hard-working Georgians who were counting
on the all-star game for a paycheck.”
In a statement on April 2, the MLB said
the decision to relocate this year’s All-Star
Game and draft came after conferring with
a number of stakeholders, including clubs
and player associations. It characterized the
move as a public expression of their support
of “fair access to voting,” without address-
ing the controversy surrounding fairness in
counting votes.
“Major League Baseball fundamentally
supports voting rights for all Americans
and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,”
the MLB stated. “In 2020, MLB became the
first professional sports league to join the
non-partisan Civic Alliance to help build
a future in which everyone participates in
shaping the United States. We proudly used
our platform to encourage baseball fans and
communities throughout our country to per-
form their civic duty and actively participate
in the voting process.”
The MLB press office didn’t immediately
respond to a request by The Epoch Times
for comment.
Georgia’s law adds a slew of changes to
the way Georgians vote, including requir-
ing photo or state-approved identification to
vote absentee by mail. The law also mandates
that secure dropboxes be placed inside early
A Kansas City Royals attendant holds a sign requiring fans to wear a mask during a game
between the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals, at Kauffman Stadium, in Kansas City, Mo.,
on April 1, 2021.
Wyoming, Mississippi, Texas, Alaska, and
Montana all announcing this week they
wouldn’t reimpose mask mandates despite
emotional pleas from the White House and
public health officials not to let up on mitiga-
tion measures.
Three weeks after Gov. Greg Abbott lifted
the mask mandate in Texas, the state hit a
record low for COVID-19 cases.
“Today, the 7-day COVID positivity rate
dropped to a new recorded low: 4.95 per-
cent,” Abbott announced on March 28, add-
ing that hospitalizations also dropped to a
6-month low.
At a White House health briefing last week,
both President Joe Biden and Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention Director
Dr. Rochelle Walensky voiced dire warnings
that too many Americans were easing up on
COVID-19 protocols.
Walensky said she had a feeling of “im-
pending doom” at the rising cases of CO-
VID-19, while Biden said if that continued,
the United States could see a “fourth surge.”
To fight against “COVID-19 fatigue,” to per-
suade people not to ease up on mitigation
measures, and to overcome vaccine hesi-
voting locations with constant surveillance,
and expands early voting across the state.
The law also shortens the election cycle
from nine weeks to four weeks and requires a
minimum of one week of early voting before
election day. People who wish to vote absen-
tee are faced with new requirements as well.
While Democrats, some civil rights ac-
tivists, and other critics say the law would
disproportionately impact minority groups’
access to voting, Georgia officials say the law
seeks to streamline vote-counting proce-
dures, ensure election integrity and legal
votes, and includes some provisions to ex-
pand voting access.
Secure, accessible, fair elec-
tions are worth the threats,
they are worth the boycotts,
as well as the lawsuits.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp
Kemp during the press conference argued
that Georgia’s reforms put the state ahead
in terms of expanding voting accessibility.
He compared his state’s law with election
regulations in New York.
“In New York, they have 10 days of early
voting. In Georgia, we have a minimum of
17, with two additional Sundays that are op-
tional for all counties in our state. In New
York, you have to have an excuse to vote by
absentee. In Georgia, you can vote absentee
for any reason and you can do it securely,”
Kemp said.
“It’s easier to vote in Georgia than it is in
New York.”
Following the law’s enactment, three vot-
ing rights groups have filed a lawsuit against
Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffens-
perger and other officials in an attempt to
block the law’s enforcement and have it de-
clared unconstitutional.
The groups have taken issue with some of
the measures to increase election integrity,
arguing that identification requirements for
ED ZURGA/GETTY IMAGES
tancy, the Biden administration has teamed
up with influencers—including community,
religious, and celebrity partners—to keep
spreading the word.
Besides urging Americans to get a CO-
VID-19 shot, the coalition of “trusted influ-
encers”—which includes athletes, doctors,
business people, and faith-based commu-
nity leaders—will continue to promote the
message that people shouldn’t let up with
measures such as social distancing and
mask-wearing.
Biden on April 29 pleaded for local authori-
ties to maintain mask mandates.
“I’m reiterating my call for every gover-
nor, mayor, and local leader to maintain and
reinstate the mask mandate,” Biden said.
“Please, this is not politics. Reinstate the
mandate if you let it down. And business
should require masks as well.”
He also urged Americans to get the vac-
cine.
The United States, which leads the world in
COVID-19 vaccinations, recently surpassed
100 million administered doses, with the
CDC announcing on April 1 a record 3.38
million shots in a single day.
absentee voting are “unnecessary and bur-
densome,” and that placing absentee drop
boxes inside early voting locations would
“unduly restrict” voting. The lawsuit also ar-
gues that prohibiting the state from distribut-
ing unsolicited absentee ballot applications
and prohibiting third parties from collecting
absentee ballot applications—which Repub-
licans say could result in ballot harvesting—
represents voter suppression.
The lawsuit also claims that banning non-
poll workers from giving food or drink to
voters waiting in line is a form of “voter sup-
pression.” The Georgia law stipulates that
individuals aren’t allowed to solicit votes by
distributing campaign materials or gifts or
offer to give money or gifts, including food
and drink, in the vicinity of the polling place,
including the polling line.
Following the MLB’s announcement, Dem-
ocrat governors began vying for the oppor-
tunity to host the popular All-Star game in
their state.
The corporate backlash has been met by
calls for counteraction by prominent Repub-
licans, including former President Donald
Trump, who is urging Republicans and con-
servatives to stand firm and to hold their own
boycott against the companies seeking to
“cancel” Georgia.
“For years, the Radical Left Democrats
have played dirty by boycotting products
when anything from that company is done
or stated in any way that offends them. Now
they are going big time with WOKE CAN-
CEL CULTURE and our sacred elections,” the
former president said on April 3 in his latest
statement on the issue.
“It is finally time for Republicans and
Conservatives to fight back—we have more
people than they do—by far!”
He called on his supporters to boycott
Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, Delta
Airlines, JPMorgan Chase, ViacomCBS,
Citigroup, Cisco, UPS, and Merck.
“Don’t go back to their products until they
relent,” Trump said. “We can play the game
better than them. They didn’t even get ap-
proval of State Legislatures, which is man-
dated under the U.S. Constitution.”
MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
22 States Join
Lawsuit Urging
Federal Court
to Rule Against
California’s Large-
Capacity Gun
Magazine Ban
JACK PHILLIPS
A coalition of 22 states led by Repub-
lican attorneys general has called on
the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to
rule against California’s attempt to ban
gun magazines that hold more than
10 bullets.
“California politicians are at it again,
convinced that their agendas should
override the Constitutional rights of
the people,” Arizona Attorney General
Mark Brnovich, a Republican said in a
statement, in announcing the filing of
an amicus brief.
“Attempts to undermine the Second
Amendment or any of our civil rights
and liberties should be met with deep
skepticism and vigorous opposition.”
Republican Louisiana Attorney
General Jeff Landry, who is leading
the legal challenge along with Brnov-
ich, said in a statement that “radical
leftist lawmakers in California and
beyond” are trying “to legislatively
overrule our constitutional rights.”
California in 2016 banned so-called
“high-capacity” magazines holding
10 or more bullets. A federal judge
later ruled that the move is uncon-
stitutional, before a three-judge panel
on the 9th Circuit upheld that judge’s
ruling. In February, the 9th Circuit’s
full 11-member panel agreed to re-
hear the case.
“Large-capacity magazines have
been used in many horrific mass
shootings around the country, in-
cluding right here in California,” then-
California Attorney General Xavier
Becerra, a Democrat, stated in Febru-
ary after the court agreed to rehear the
case. “That’s why today’s decision by
the Ninth Circuit to rehear this case is
critical; it is the next step in the defense
of our state’s commonsense gun laws.”
The attorney general’s office then
said that the higher-capacity maga-
zines “have been used in numerous
horrific mass shootings throughout
the country, including the tragic shoot-
ing at the Borderline Bar and Grill in
Thousand Oaks in 2018 and the shoot-
ing at the Inland Regional Center in
San Bernardino in 2015.” California
banned the manufacture of such mag-
azines in 2000.
But in the brief, the states argued that
the right to bear arms protects people
in high-crime or disadvantaged areas
where law enforcement might be un-
able to respond in a timely manner.
“California should not be allowed to
invade its own citizens’ constitutional
rights, and this Court should not im-
peril the rights of citizens in this Cir-
cuit and other states with its analysis,”
the brief stated. They ultimately argued
that California’s law violates the Con-
stitution’s Second Amendment.
The move comes after President Joe
Biden and top congressional Demo-
crats have said that more action is
needed on gun control, including
a federal ban of magazines holding
more than 10 rounds, after shootings
in Atlanta and Colorado last month.
Biden also sought the banning of
so-called assault weapons and told
reporters at the White House that
when he was a senator, he was able
to get gun-control measures passed,
including the 1994 federal assault
weapons ban that expired 10 years
later. The term “assault weapons” has
been assailed by gun rights groups,
who have said the term is purpose-
fully nebulous while pointing out that
states have individual definitions and
requirements for what constitutes an
“assault weapon.”
The case is Duncan v. Rodriquez, No.
19-55376.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
A Los Angeles Police Department officer
displays guns recovered from residents,
on Dec. 5, 2020.
 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
Texas No Longer Observing CDC Eviction Moratorium
MATTHEW VADUM
The Texas Supreme Court has di-
rected courts in the state to stop
honoring the federal moratorium
on residential evictions that a fed-
eral judge in the state already struck
down in late February as unconsti-
tutional.
The Texas Supreme Court’s 34th
emergency order that applied the
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention’s (CDC) moratorium
on evictions expired March 31 and
hasn’t been renewed, which means
new and paused eviction applica-
tions may now move forward.
Although the CO-
VID-19 pandemic
persists, so does
the Constitution.
Judge J. Campbell Barker
The Texas Justice Court Training
Center, which is responsible for
training eviction court judges, is
now encouraging judges to set new
hearings for old cases that were put
on hold by the CDC order, to deter-
mine if landlords want to proceed.
“This just means that the courts in
Texas would follow Texas procedure
in law, which doesn’t have anything
in it about the CDC moratorium.
Now there could be local laws that
would maybe have a moratorium,”
said Theadora Wallen, the Center’s
executive director, according to the
Texas Tribune.
One lawyer said she fears the
worst.
Bipartisan Group of Senators Say Fixing
Immigration Crisis Is Biden’s Responsibility
JACK PHILLIPS
A bipartisan group of lawmakers
says that fixing the U.S.–Mexico
border crisis is the responsibility
of the Biden administration and
various federal agencies, adding
that Congress has little power to
act on immigration matters.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said
he’s not sure what Congress can
do in the immediate future.
“I don’t know you need legisla-
tion. I think what we need is to
make sure we get the people and
the technology down there to stop
it,” he said in an interview with
The Hill over the weekend. “We
also need to work with the oth-
er countries to make sure that
they’re not sending folks up.
“That’s how I would approach it.”
Dealing with the crisis “down
there” is the responsibility “of the
executive branch,” said Sen. Shel-
don Whitehouse (D-R.I.), accord-
ing to the news outlet. “If they feel
they need additional resources,
obviously, we’re here to help.”
“There’s resources. There’s the
question of standing up the places
in Central America where people
can apply [for asylum] directly,”
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said
of things Congress can do.
It comes after Sen. Joe Manchin
(D-W.Va.) said after the border
visit last week that it’s time for
Congress to take action and ad-
dress the crisis.
Nearly 20 Republican senators
traveled to the border late last
month, with many blaming the
massive surge in illegal immigra-
tion on President Joe Biden’s slew
of executive orders that rescind-
ed a number of Trump-era poli-
cies, including the “Remain in
Mexico” protocol and construc-
tion of the border wall, and in-
stead allowing unaccompanied
children and some families to
stay in the United States for pro-
cessing, and signaling support
for granting increased avenues to
citizenship for more than 11 mil-
lion illegal immigrants already
in the United States.
“They need to go back to the
policies that were working,” Sen.
“I think that it’s fair to say that
the entire state is now under threat
of massive eviction,” Dana Karni,
managing attorney with Lone
Star Legal Aid, told Houston Pub-
lic Media. “The fact that the Texas
Supreme Court emergency order
is not being renewed is definitely
a blunt blow to tenants and tenant
protections.
“At this point, the only protec-
tion we have is from the CDC,” she
said. “The floodgates have now been
opened.”
U.S. District Judge J. Campbell
Barker of the Eastern District of
Texas ruled against the eviction
moratorium in a declaratory judg-
ment on Feb. 25.
“Although the COVID-19 pan-
demic persists, so does the Con-
stitution,” Barker wrote in a case
known as Terkel v. CDC.
The CDC order “exceeds the power
granted to the federal government
to ‘regulate Commerce ... among
the several States’ and to ‘make all
Laws which shall be necessary and
proper for carrying into Execution’
that power,” he wrote, citing provi-
sions of the Constitution.
“The CDC attempted to use CO-
VID-19 as an opportunity to grab
power and the court rightfully cor-
rected this egregious overreach.
This case puts down a marker. There
are real, meaningful, limits to fed-
eral power under our Constitution.
And pandemic or not, federal courts
have a ‘virtually unflagging obliga-
tion’ to impose those limits in cases
brought before them,” said Texas
Public Policy Foundation general
counsel Robert Henneke, citing the
decision.
The CDC has argued that the
President Joe Biden speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House on
April 2, 2021.
Family units and unaccompanied alien children are held in a temporary pro-
cessing facility in Donna, Texas.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in
an interview with The Hill.
Democratic Senate leaders,
including Majority Whip Dick
Durbin (D-Ill.), told reporters last
month that it’s unlikely an immi-
gration reform bill will be passed
anytime soon, citing divisions in
the House.
“I think Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi
has discovered that she doesn’t
have support for the comprehen-
sive bill in the House,” Durbin told
reporters. “And it indicates where
it is in the Senate as well.”
Underscoring the severity of the
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, in this file photo.
eviction ban was needed to curb
the spread of the CCP virus, which
causes the disease COVID-19, al-
though tenants could invoke the
ban whether they suffered from
virus-related hardships or not.
Congress enacted a nationwide
moratorium on evictions that ex-
pired July 24, 2020. Weeks later,
then-President Donald Trump
directed his administration to
consider whether such a measure
should be part of efforts to combat
the spread of COVID-19 moving for-
ward. In response, the CDC ordered
a moratorium on some, but not all,
MANDEL NGAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
CBP
crisis, the Department of Home-
land Security’s Office of Inspector
General (OIG) found numerous
violations at an immigration de-
tention facility in La Palma Cor-
rectional Center in Eloy, Arizona.
“One detainee, who is a cancer
patient, ran out of leukemia medi-
cation after the medical staff did
not order a refill on time,” the OIG
report said. “Since the detainee
did not hold the medication, he
was not aware of when the medi-
cation was running out or how
long it would take medical staff
to obtain a refill.”
evictions. That moratorium differed
from the one Congress enacted. It
has been extended repeatedly.
The Biden administration sup-
ports the ban. Its current termina-
tion date is June 30.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has
presented a historic threat to the na-
tion’s public health. Keeping people
in their homes and out of crowded
or congregate settings—like home-
less shelters—by preventing evic-
tions is a key step in helping to stop
the spread of COVID-19,” CDC Di-
rector Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky said,
according to CNN.
Wisconsin Governor Asks Court to
Force Sidney Powell, Trump to Pay
Over $100,000 in Legal Fees
JACK PHILLIPS
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on
March 31 asked a federal court
to force lawyer Sidney Powell
and her client to pay more than
$106,000 in legal fees over a law-
suit regarding the state’s presi-
dential election results, and he’s
seeking $144,000 from former
President Donald Trump and
his lawyers, according to court
filings.
“A message must be sent that this
type of behavior cannot be toler-
ated in the judicial system, and
that attorneys should avoid these
types of frivolous attempts to dis-
enfranchise voters in the future,”
attorneys for Evers said in court
papers filed last week.
“This litigation imposed sig-
nificant costs on the taxpayers
of Wisconsin,” the attorneys said
about Trump in separate court
papers. “Those costs were need-
less, because Trump’s suit never
had any merit, this litigation was
precluded by exclusive state-court
proceedings, and the costs were
exacerbated by strategic choices
made by Trump and his lawyers.”
Powell and Trump’s team didn’t
immediately respond to requests
by The Epoch Times for comment.
“We deny the claims,” said Wil-
liam Bock, a lawyer representing
Trump, according to Reuters.
“They’re attacking in the plead-
ings my motives and the motives
of my partners, of which they
know nothing. The statements
made about our motives were
absolutely false.”
Powell told Forbes magazine
OTABIUS WILLIAMS/THE EPOCH TIMES)
NATION | A3
TAMI CHAPPELL/REUTERS
A federal judge in Ohio struck
down the CDC moratorium on
March 10, finding it exceeded the
agency’s authority.
The ruling came in the case
known as Skyworks Ltd. v. CDC.
Attorney Luke Wake of the Pacific
Legal Foundation, who represented
a group of landlords in the lawsuit,
said at the time that he was pleased
with the court’s decision.
“This vindicates the rights of
landlords, but it also speaks to what
we’ve been saying all along—that
CDC had no authority to do this,”
Wake told The Epoch Times.
that Evers’s request in court was
“baseless, improper, and out of
time.”
“The case is closed,” she said.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court
rejected Powell’s lawsuit in Wis-
consin and Arizona. Writing on
March 1, the high court issued a
one-sentence order:  “The peti-
tions for writs of mandamus are
denied.”
One of Powell’s mandamus pe-
titions had stated: “A submission
directly to this Court seeking an
extraordinary writ of mandamus
is unusual, but it has its founda-
tion. While such relief is rare,
this Court will grant it ‘where a
question of public importance is
involved, or where the question
is of such a nature that it is pecu-
liarly appropriate that such action
by this Court should be taken.’”
In February, Powell announced
that she launched a super PAC
dedicated to freedom of speech,
constitutional rights, and fair
elections.
“The American people deserve a
voice that exposes and rejects the
self-interest of political parties, the
control of tech giants, and the lies
of the fake news,” she announced
at the time of the creation of her
Restore the Republic Super PAC.
Powell had filed a number of
third-party, election-related law-
suits following the Nov. 3, 2020,
contest in a bid to help Trump. She
appeared alongside then-Trump
attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna
Ellis at a news conference in No-
vember last year before Giuliani
confirmed about a week later that
she wasn’t part of their team.
Sidney
Powell in
Washington
on Dec.
13, 2020.
A4 | NATION
Facebook, Twitter Campaign Donations Overwhelmingly
Go to Democrats on Oversight Panels, Group Finds
MARK TAPSCOTT
A conservative nonprofit advocacy
group monitoring Big Tech claims
that almost all Facebook and Twit-
ter employee and committee cam-
paign contributions went to Demo-
crats serving on House oversight
committees.
The Internet Accountability Proj-
ect (IAP) said in an April 1 statement
that, based on campaign finance
data compiled by opensecrets.org,
Facebook and Twitter (employees
and PACs) combined “contributed
more than 12 times more money
to Democrats (more than $5.5 mil-
lion) than Republicans (less than
$435,000) in 2020.”
The group cited a leading self-
proclaimed Democratic Socialist
in the House of Representatives as
an example of the extreme bias by
Democrats in political giving by
employees of the two social media
giants.
“As just one example, [Rep.] Al-
exandria Ocasio-Cortez received
a combined $36,346 in 2020, com-
pared to less than $1,950 for all Re-
publicans on the House Oversight
Committee combined. Twitter em-
ployees didn’t give a single dollar to
Republicans on the Oversight Com-
mittee,” IAP said in its statement.
The IAP describes itself as being
dedicated to holding “Big Tech ac-
countable for engaging in egregious
business practices like snooping,
spying, political bias against con-
servatives, employee abuses, and
anticompetitive conduct.”
The nonprofit is headed by Mike
Davis, a former chief counsel for
nominations for Sen. Chuck Grass-
ley (R-Iowa) during the latter’s
tenure as chairman of the Senate
Committee on the Judiciary. Da-
vis led at the staff level the Senate
confirmation of Justice Brett Ka-
vanaugh and a record number of
circuit court judges.
The IAP revelation comes as Sili-
con Valley giants such as Facebook,
Twitter, Amazon, and Google face
New Staff Deploy to Border Processing
Facilities as Crisis Worsens
CONTINUED FROM A1
transportation, basic firearms,
detainee care, and other skills.
The new role was developed un-
der the Trump administration
in response to large numbers of
Border Patrol agents being pulled
away from border security to deal
with humanitarian issues.
The new coordinators are “trained
specifically to be able to care for the
detainee population—identifying
the sensitive populations, the at-risk
populations, making sure that the
medical care that is needed is open
to them,” said Jason Owens, chief
patrol agent of the Border Patrol
training academy in Artesia, New
Mexico.
The coordinators won’t be armed
or have arrest authority, as it’s not a
law enforcement position, but some
of the graduates, such as Marco
Mena, have a desire to eventually
train as an agent.
Mena, 27, is one of 19 graduates
who will begin work inside the El
Paso temporary processing facility
on April 5. The other 20 will deploy
to the Donna, Texas, facility.
Mena was working in IT for Best
Buy when a friend told him about
the job.
“I’ve always liked working with
people,” Mena told The Epoch Times
on April 2. “And that caregiver side
of me, I want to go ahead and help.
There’s a lot of unaccompanied mi-
nors, and I’d like to be able to lend
a helping hand in making sure that
they feel safe, that they have some-
where where they are sheltered,
where they have meals, where they
can rest.”
A record high of more than 19,000
unaccompanied minors crossed the
border illegally during the month of
March, according to reports of pre-
liminary numbers from Customs
One hundred cardboard cutouts of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg stand outside the U.S. Capitol in
Washington on April 10, 2018.
growing criticism for censoring by
their executives and employees of
political expression on the inter-
net, mostly by conservative and
Republican supporters of former
President Donald Trump.
Many Republicans and some
Democrats are calling for legisla-
tion to reform Section 230 of the
federal Communications Decency
Act of 1996, which exempts internet
firms from facing the same liability
as traditional publishers.
A review by The Epoch Times of
campaign finance data compiled
by opensecrets.org concerning
other Big Tech firms produced
results nearly identical to those
reported by IAP:
• Amazon’s $10.42 million in
contributions to Democrats far
exceeded the $1.79 million the
firm’s employees and commit-
tees gave to Republicans.
• Data for Alphabet Inc., the cor-
Chief Border Patrol agent Jason Owens speaks to Border Patrol processing coor-
dinator trainees at a training facility in Artesia, New Mexico, on April 1, 2021.
and Border Protection (CBP).
By law, unaccompanied children
are meant to be processed through
CBP facilities within 72 hours, be-
fore being transferred to Health and
Human Services (HHS). However,
the facilities are so overwhelmed
that some children remain in CBP
custody for a week or more.
On April 2, CBP was holding more
than 5,380 unaccompanied minors,
while HHS had more than 13,000
minors in custody.
The Biden administration has
opened emergency HHS facilities
in San Diego; Fort Bliss, Texas; and
several other locations.
Karina Garza, 31, heard about the
processing job from her neighbor,
who’s a Border Patrol agent in the
Rio Grande Valley.
Garza has a bachelor’s degree in
psychology, majoring in child psy-
chology, but she was working in re-
tail management before being ac-
cepted into the processing position.
“It’s something that I know is ben-
eficial to our country. It’s just some-
thing that I look forward to, to just
help assist our country,” Garza told
porate parent of Google, showed
an even greater disparity, with
$22.17 million going to Demo-
crats, versus $1.4 million.
• Apple Inc.’s list of 10 biggest recip-
ients of employee contributions
was headed by the $1,885,635
given to President Joe Biden’s
2020 presidential campaign.
Only one of the top 10 recipients
wasn’t Democratic, the Republi-
can National Committee, which
received $220,536.
• Broadcom, which acquired Sy-
mantec in 2019, saw its employ-
ees contribute $245,734 to Biden,
compared to $83,079 to former
President Donald Trump’s re-
election campaign.
• Hewlett Packard contributions
to Biden totaled $171,683, com-
pared to $50,335 to Trump. Seven
of the top 10 Hewlett Packard re-
cipients were Democrats.
Republicans aren’t without some
OREM ISPUM LOREM CREDIT
The Epoch Times. “From what we’re
seeing and what we’re being told,
we’re very much needed at the mo-
ment because of the influx.”
She said the instructors and other
agents have told her how instru-
mental her role will be in alleviating
the pressure at the facilities.
Owens said agents are now going
to be able to return to patrol duty
quicker.
“You’re about to hit the field at a
time when we need you the most,”
Owens said during the class gradu-
ation on April 2. “We’re going to be
able to do a better job at border se-
curity. We are better able to serve
the American people.”
Owens said five more classes are
scheduled to be completed this fis-
cal year at a facility in Charleston,
South Carolina. In total, Border Pa-
trol hopes to train 1,200 processing
coordinators within the next four
years. The job is guaranteed for 13
months but can be extended for up
to four years.
The federal training facility in Ar-
tesia trains about 1,750 Border Patrol
agents per year.
SAUL LOEB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
support among Silicon Valley gi-
ants. At Oracle, for example, the top
three recipients were all Republi-
can, including the Opportunity
Matters Fund, the 1820 PAC, and
the Better Future Michigan fund.
But even at Oracle, employee and
committee contributions to Biden,
at $674,751, far outpaced those to
Trump, at $164,185.
The IAP report is likely to fuel crit-
ics of Big Tech censorship, which
has intensified in recent months,
most prominently with Trump be-
ing kicked off Twitter; and Parler,
an upstart competitor being kicked
out of the Google and Apple app
stores, which are essential markets,
and then its internet access being
cut off by Amazon.
Citing the actions that removed
Parler from the internet for more
than a month, Davis told The Epoch
Times on April 2 that two things are
needed to deal with Big Tech’s cen-
sorship and monopolistic practices.
Sen. Barrasso Says He Was Told
to Delete Photos of Border Facilities
JACK PHILLIPS
A Republican senator said he was
told to delete photos that he took of
migrant facilities during a recent
visit to the U.S.–Mexico border.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the
third-ranking Republican in the
Senate, told Fox News on April 4
that officials told GOP senators
to delete photos captured at vari-
ous Border Patrol facilities.
“This is both a humanitarian cri-
sis and a national security crisis,”
Barrasso said. “You may have seen
the numbers today are the high-
est in history of unaccompanied
minors currently in captivity. They
are crammed in like sardines. And
this is what the Biden adminis-
tration is trying to hide from the
American public.
“We were told to delete the pic-
tures. No one did. You’ve seen
the video coming out of all of
these kids crammed together
under the foil blankets, huddling
together.” The senator didn’t say
who told him to delete the pho-
tos. The White House didn’t re-
spond to a request for comment
by press time.
The Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) and White House
have faced criticism from mem-
bers of the media, including an
award-winning Getty Images pho-
tographer, about a lack of access to
border facilities.
Last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex-
as) posted a video from within a
Border Patrol facility in Donna,
Texas, saying that a Biden ad-
ministration staffer told him not
to film unaccompanied children
who were being held in cramped
conditions inside makeshift tent-
like structures.
“Please give dignity to the peo-
ple. Please give dignity to the peo-
ple. ... Please respect the people,
MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
“There are two fixes to Big Tech’s
government-sponsored censor-
ship: ending antitrust amnesty and
reforming Section 230 immunity.
They overlap, but they are two dif-
ferent issues,” Davis said.
“The antitrust laws are law en-
forcement; there is a civil compo-
nent and there is a criminal com-
ponent. It is not regulation, it is law
enforcement. You are targeting the
tumor, you are targeting the bad
actors in the market.”
“What the anti-trust law enforce-
ment would do is target Big Tech’s
power. The reason Google’s You-
Tube or Facebook or Twitter can
censor conservatives is they have
too much market power, because
they are monopolists,” he said.
Such power enables the Big Tech
giants to cripple or even bar poten-
tial competitors such as Parler.
Davis pointed out that Section
230 was approved as a means of
protecting then-startup inter-
net companies such as AOL and
Compuserve against defamation
litigation used by established news
media conglomerates to cripple po-
tential competition.
But over the years, as the inter-
net has displaced the old media
conglomerates, Davis said, “the
Big Tech monopolists have turned
Section 230 from a liability shield
into a censorship sword.” The re-
sult is a situation in which firms
such as Google and Facebook
have unprecedented power to
shape the internet.
“Trillion-dollar Big Tech mo-
nopolists no longer need Uncle
Sam’s coddling and protection,
and these Big Tech monopolists like
Google’s YouTube, Facebook, and
Twitter have proven that they are
very capable of finding, censoring
and even deplatforming users with
whom they disagree or otherwise
find objectionable,” he said.
Congressional correspondent
Mark Tapscott may be reached at
mark.tapscott@epochtimes.nyc
the rules,” the person told Cruz
while blocking the camera with
her face, according to footage.
Cruz ultimately said in response
to the woman: “I understand that
you were instructed.
“I respect them, and I want to fix
this situation, and the administra-
tion that you work for is respon-
sible for these conditions.”
As a result of the lack of media
access and claims from Cruz and
Barrasso, some lawmakers have
opted to leak photos from inside
the facilities. Rep. Henry Cuellar
(D-Texas) sent photos of children
being housed in cramped quar-
ters, sleeping under foil emer-
gency blankets.
This is both a hu-
manitarian crisis
and a national
security crisis.
Sen. John Barrasso
Barrasso also said that testing
for the CCP (Chinese Commu-
nist Party) virus, which causes
COVID-19, is done after the chil-
dren leave Border Patrol facilities.
He argued that such a procedure
doesn’t prevent the virus from
spreading.
“They do the instant test. And
then those that have been tested
positive are just kind of moved to
one side of the courtyard, those
negative to the other of this court-
yard,” Barrasso told Fox.
“They’ve all been exposed, and
then they’re sent all across the
country. You know, that is the real
tragedy of this. And we’re not sure
what variant of the coronavirus
they’re carrying. They are carrying
it, though, all around America.”
 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
Over 100 Million Americans Have
Received at Least 1 Vaccine Dose: CDC
TOM OZIMEK
The United States has become
the first nation to inoculate 100
million people with at least one
dose of the COVID-19 vaccine,
according to updated data from
the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC).
Nearly 158 million doses of the
COVID-19 vaccine have been ad-
ministered, while almost 58 mil-
lion people are fully vaccinated,
according to the CDC’s vaccine
tracker.
The figures, as of April 2, show
that 101,804,762 people in the
United States—or 30.7 percent of
the population—have received at
least their first dose.
The milestone comes as the
vaccination drive builds momen-
tum in the United States, with
the CDC announcing on April 1
a record 3.38 million doses of CO-
VID-19 vaccines administered in
a single day.
After announcing on March
11 that every adult in the United
States would be eligible for vacci-
nation no later than May 1, Presi-
dent Joe Biden said last week that
the expanded availability of vac-
cines means that the time frame
has been compressed.
“At least 90 percent of all adults
in this country will be eligible to
be vaccinated by April 19, just
three weeks from now, because
we have the vaccines,” Biden said
in remarks at the White House.
“For the vast, vast majority of
adults, you won’t have to wait
until May 1,” he said, noting that
the remaining 10 percent would
be eligible for a shot on May 1.
But despite progress in vacci-
nations, new infections in the
United States are on the rise, with
the seven-day moving average of
daily infections now over 79,000,
Rep. Lynch Urges Americans
to Stop Buying PPE From China
CONTINUED FROM A1
The American Rescue Plan,
a $1.9 trillion relief package,
is providing billions of dollars
to U.S. states, cities, and gov-
ernment agencies to purchase
masks and other personal pro-
tective products. However, U.S.
companies that supply PPE are
still sourcing them from China,
Lynch said.
Lynch is asking the organi-
zations that were given federal
funds to buy PPE made in the
United States to support busi-
nesses at home.
“There are companies across
America that are trying to pro-
vide personal protective prod-
ucts for American citizens,” said
Lynch. “But that can’t happen
if people continue to buy those
THINK
THE EPOCH TIMES
BUT FOR TV
News without spin, for you to
form your own opinion.
GET NTD ON TV
NTD.com/TV
Patients receive vaccines at a hospital in Louisville, Ky., on April 2, 2021.
up from around 53,000 earlier in
March, according to Johns Hop-
kins data.
Biden has urged continued vigi-
lance and not letting up on public
health measures such as social
distancing and wearing masks.
“I plead with you, don’t give
back the progress we’ve all fought
so hard to achieve,” Biden said at
a press briefing on April 2. “We
need every American to buckle
down and keep their guard up
in this home stretch.”
At a White House health brief-
ing last week, Biden and Centers
for Disease Control and Preven-
tion Director Dr. Rochelle Walen-
sky both voiced dire warnings
that too many Americans were
easing COVID-19 protocols.
Walensky said she had a feeling
of “impending doom” at the rising
cases of COVID-19, while Biden
said if that continued, the United
States could see a “fourth surge.”
We shouldn’t put
our future and our
safety in the hands
of a government
that’s been hostile
to the interests of
the United States.
Rep. Stephen Lynch
products from China.”
Last year, the National Insti-
tute for Occupational Safety
and Health found that a sig-
nificant number of N95-style
masks from China didn’t reach
the required filtration standard,
putting U.S. health care workers
at greater risk.
WATCH US ONLINE
NTD.com/live
Nearly 158 mil-
lion doses of the
COVID-19 vaccine
have been ad-
ministered, while
almost 58 million
people are fully
vaccinated.
To fight against “COVID-19 fa-
tigue,” to persuade people not to
ease up on mitigation measures,
and to overcome vaccine hesi-
tancy, the Biden administration
has teamed up with influenc-
ers—including community, reli-
gious, and celebrity partners—to
spread the word.
Besides urging Americans to
get a COVID-19 jab, the coalition
of “trusted influencers”—which
includes athletes, doctors, busi-
Workers make medical masks at a factory in Jishou, Hunan Province, China, on
Jan. 28, 2021.
Certain masks from China
“may not provide consistent
and adequate respiratory pro-
tection to health care person-
nel exposed to COVID-19,” the
FDA said in a letter to health
care providers.
China’s  medical protective
equipment has been rejected by
PAUL GREANEY
Host of NTD Business
JON CHERRY/GETTY IMAGES
ness people, and faith-based
community leaders—will con-
tinue to promote the message
that people shouldn’t let up on
measures such as social distanc-
ing and mask-wearing.
The administration is also
working on guidelines around
the use of so-called “vaccine
passports,” which are credentials
like cards or apps that serve as
proof of having received a CO-
VID-19 shot.
The Biden administration has
said the federal government
won’t come up with a national
vaccine passport app, leaving
development to the private sec-
tor, but the federal government is
formulating regulations for how
and when those passports can
be used.
The issue of vaccine passports
has become a hot-button topic,
with conservatives expressing
concern over privacy.
STR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
a number of European countries
due to its poor quality. Mean-
while, shoddy Chinese-made
PPE has also been seized in
Australia and India. Last year,
China confiscated 89 million of
its own face masks after world-
wide complaints of their sub-
standard quality.
TIFFANY MEIER STEFANIA COX
Host of China in Focus Host of NTD
and Deep Dive Evening News
NATION | A5
Senators Ask
Big Firms to
Reveal Details
on Foreign,
Domestic Buyers
of User Data
CONTINUED FROM A1
shown to people on their elec-
tronic devices when hundreds
of companies participate in an
auction for their advertisement
to be displayed.
“Few Americans realize that
some auction participants are
siphoning off and storing ‘bid-
stream’ data to compile exhaus-
tive dossiers about them. In turn,
these dossiers are being openly
sold to anyone with a credit card,
including to hedge funds, political
campaigns, and even to govern-
ments,” the letter states.
The other senators who signed
the letter are Bill Cassidy (R-La.),
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mark
Warner (D-Va.), Sherrod Brown
(D-Ohio), and Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.).
“Over the past year, multiple re-
ports have indicated that a number
of federal agencies have purchased
personal data derived from mobile
apps and other online services, in
ways that potentially merit closer
scrutiny. But the United States is
not the only government with the
means and interest in acquiring
Americans’ personal data. This
information would be a goldmine
for foreign intelligence services
that could exploit it to inform and
supercharge hacking, blackmail,
and influence campaigns,” the let-
ter reads.
The eight companies being ad-
dressed are AT&T, Google, Twitter,
Verizon, Index Exchange, Magnite,
OpenX, and PubMatic.
They then request certain specific
information about the auction par-
ticipants, foreign and domestic.
The four questions read:
1. Please identify the specific data
elements about users, their de-
vices, the websites they are ac-
cessing, and apps they are using
that you provide to auction par-
ticipants.
2. Please identify each company,
foreign or domestic, to whom
your firm has provided bidstream
data in the past three years that is
not contractually prohibited from
sharing, selling, or using the data
for any purpose unrelated to bid-
ding on and delivering an ad.
3. If your firm has contractual re-
strictions in place prohibiting the
sharing, sale, or secondary use of
bidstream data, please detail all
efforts to audit compliance with
these contractual restrictions and
the results of those audits.
4. Please identify each foreign-
headquartered or foreign-ma-
jority-owned company to whom
your firm has provided bidstream
data from users in the United
States and their devices in the
past three years.
The senators want the questions
answered by May 4.
KEVIN HOGAN
Host of NTD
News Today
A6 | NATION MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021

Democratic Governors Push Biden to Lift Cap

on SALT Tax Deductions
MANDEL NGAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
ZACHARY STIEBER

A group of powerful Democratic

governors is pressuring President
Joe Biden to lift a cap on state and
local tax deductions, known as
SALT.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo,
California Gov. Gavin Newsom,
and five other governors wrote
to Biden on April 2 praising his
administration for steps it’s taken
so far, including the $1.9 trillion
COVID-19 relief package it was
able to ram through Congress.

Taxpayers in New
York and California
are being forced
to pay more than
$12 billion per state
in additional taxes
to the federal gov-
ernment because
of the cap.
“We applaud those efforts to
help our citizens. But we must go
further and undo the cap placed
on State and Local Tax (SALT) de-
ductions by the Trump Adminis-
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden depart from the South Lawn of the White House on April 2, 2021.
tration through the Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act in 2017,” the group said. JOHN FREDRICKS/THE EPOCH TIMES

They asserted that capping
the deductions “was based on
politics, not logic or good gov-
ernment,” adding: “This assault
disproportionately targeted
Democratic-run states, increas-
ing taxes on hardworking fami-
lies. This was unacceptable then,
and is simply untenable given the
dire economic conditions caused
by the pandemic.”
Former President Donald
Trump signed into law a tax cut
bill in the first year of his admin-
istration that capped the item-
ized deduction for state and lo-
cal taxes to $5,000 for a married
person filing a separate return
and $10,000 for all other tax filers.
Trump said during a televi-
sion interview about the cap that
some well-run states are “really
subsidizing states that have been
horribly mismanaged.
“And it’s unfair that those states
really are being subsidized by
states like Indiana and Iowa.
And I mean, I could name many
states. I could probably name
California Gov. Gavin Newsom in
Santa Ana, Calif., on March 25, 2021.
three-quarters of them. They
are so well run and they are be-
ing penalized. They’re being pe-
nalized. And it’s not fair. And so
what we are doing is, we’re show-
ing that. Now, with all of that,
the tax cuts are so steep that the
people in every state benefit. But
it’s finally time to say, hey, make
sure that your politicians do a
good job of running your state.
Otherwise, you are not going to
benefit,” he said.
The attorneys general for New
York, New Jersey, Maryland, and
Connecticut sued the Trump ad-
ministration, arguing that the
SALT cap was unconstitutional
because it pressured the states
to change their tax policies. The
lawsuit was dismissed and an ap-
peal was rejected.
According to the new letter,
taxpayers in New York and Cali-
fornia are being forced to pay
more than $12 billion per state
in additional taxes to the federal
government because of the cap.
“In short, middle-class Ameri-
cans are struggling under this
federal tax burden, while cor-
porations—which are still able
to fully deduct SALT as business
expenses—are profiting because
of the same law. The negative im-
pacts of the SALT cap on middle-
class families are particularly
egregious when you consider
that in the states most affected by
this cap, the federal government
already takes more in federal
taxes than the states receive in
federal support, effectively subsi-
dizing federal payments to other
states,” the governors wrote, urg-
ing Biden to immediately repeal
the provision.
Hawaii Gov. David Ige, Illinois
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown, Connecticut Gov.
Ned Lamont, and New Jersey
Gov. Phil Murphy also signed
the letter.
Asked where Biden stands on
the matter, White House press
secretary Jen Psaki told report-
ers last week that the adminis-
tration would be “happy to hear”
ideas from Democrats on ways
to eliminate SALT, noting that
doing so would cost the federal
government money.
Proposals should include ways
to pay for the elimination, “un-
less they think that doesn’t need
to be paid for,” she said.
The SALT cap, in addition to
other parts of Trump’s tax cuts,
led to rich Americans paying
more taxes, according to an IRS
analysis. The state and local tax
deduction limit “raised mar-
ginal rates for a lot of folks at
the top,” Garrett Watson, senior
policy analyst at the Tax Foun-
dation, a nonpartisan tax policy
group, told The Epoch Times in a
previous interview.
During a hearing last month,
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
told Democratic members of Con-
gress that she “would work with
you to try to ensure the inequities
that this caused are remedied in a
fair and responsible way.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.) said during a press call
on April 1 that she supports add-
ing a SALT cap repeal into an up-
coming piece of legislation, say-
ing the limits were “devastating
to the state of California.”
“It was mean-spirited to begin
with, politically targeted,” she
said.
Tom Ozimek and Emel Akan
contributed to this report. 

Florida Gov. Declares State of Emergency Over Facebook Data From

More Than 500 Million
Radioactive Wastewater Leak Users Found Online
TIFFANY TOMPKINS/THE BRADENTON HERALD VIA AP

CONTINUED FROM A1
saltwater from the south reser-
voir at the Piney Point facility.”
The emergency order, he said,
will enable Manatee County of-
ficials to respond.
Separately, the Manatee Coun-
ty Public Safety Department
urged people near the process-
ing plant to evacuate due to an
“imminent uncontrolled release
of wastewater.”
The main concern is the amount
of phosphogypsum, which is “ra-
dioactive waste” in the pond from
processing phosphate into a state
that it can be used for commercial
fertilizer, according to the Center
for Biological Diversity.
“In addition to high concentra-
tions of radioactive materials,
phosphogypsum and processed
wastewater can also contain car-
cinogens and heavy toxic metals,”
the center said in a statement on
April 3 in response to the possible
breach. “For every ton of phos-
phoric acid produced, the fertilizer
industry creates 5 tons of radioac-
tive phosphogypsum waste, which
is stored in mountainous stacks
hundreds of acres wide and hun-
dreds of feet tall.”
The pond near the old Piney
Point phosphate mine sits in a
Ulparita ssimaio. Nequodit offictis nectam
stack of phosphogypsum. It also
contains radium and uranium,
which are also considered high-
ly radioactive, while the stacks
can release large amounts of ra-
don gas—which can cause lung
cancer.
The water being pumped out of
the site is a mix of seawater, rain
runoff, and stormwater, state and
county officials said.
“The water meets water quality
standards for marine waters with
the exception of pH, total phos-
phorus, total nitrogen, and total
ammonia nitrogen,” the state said
in a statement. “It is slightly acidic,
but not at a level that is expected
to be a concern, nor is it expected
to be toxic.”
Florida Commissioner of Agri-
culture Nikki Fried noted that the
water that is leaking is “contami-
nated, radioactive wastewater,”
according to her letter to DeSantis.
She wrote, “There have been
numerous, well-documented fail-
ures—which continue today—of
the property’s reservoir liner, in-
cluding leaks, poor welds, holes,
cracks, and weaknesses that ex-
isted prior to purchase by the cur-
rent owner, HRK Holdings, and
exacerbated since.”
NEW YORK—Details from more than 500 mil-
lion Facebook users have been found available
on a website for hackers.
While the information appears to be sev-
eral years old, it’s another example of the vast
amount of information collected by Facebook
and other social media sites, and the limits to
how secure that information is.
The availability of the data set was first re-
ported by Business Insider. According to that
publication, it has information from 106 coun-
tries including phone numbers, Facebook IDs,
full names, locations, birthdates, and email
addresses.
Facebook has been grappling with data secu-
rity issues for years. In 2018, the social media
giant disabled a feature that allowed users to
search for one another via phone number fol-
A reservoir near lowing revelations that the political firm Cam-
the old Piney bridge Analytica had accessed information on
Point phosphate up to 87 million Facebook users without their
mine, in Braden- knowledge or consent.
ton, Fla., on April In December 2019, a Ukrainian security re-
3, 2021.
searcher reported finding a database with the
names, phone numbers, and unique user IDs of
more than 267 million Facebook users—nearly
all U.S.-based—on the open internet. It’s un-
clear if the current data dump is related to this
database.
“This is old data that was previously reported
on in 2019,” the Menlo Park, California-based
company said in a statement. “We found and
fixed this issue in August 2019.”
From The Associated Press
 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
Iowa Governor Signs Law Letting Residents Buy,
Carry Guns Without Permits
LORENZ DUCHAMPS
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed
legislation into law on April 2 lift-
ing some restrictions on the pur-
chase or carrying of a handgun in
the state for law-abiding citizens.
The NRA-backed legislation,
named “House File 756,” will take
effect on July 1 and eliminates
the requirement for law-abiding
Iowans to obtain a permit to pur-
chase a handgun from private
nonlicensed sources. Additionally,
people will no longer need a permit
in order to carry a weapon.
What we can do is
ensure law-abid-
ing citizens have
full access to their
constitutional
rights while keep-
ing Iowans safe.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds
Individuals will still have to fol-
low federal law and go through an
instant background check to buy
from licensed sellers each time
they purchase a gun.
People who fail to commit to the
new law will be charged with a
Class D felony, which is punishable
by up to five years in prison. It will
become a felony if a person sells,
rents, or loans a firearm to some-
one the seller “knows or reasonably
should know” isn’t legally allowed
In-person learning at St. Anthony High School in Long Beach, Calif., on March
24, 2021.
Biden Can’t Take Credit for
Meeting School Reopening
Goal, Data Show
PETR SVAB
While President Joe Biden has
met his school reopening goal
almost a month ahead of sched-
ule, data indicate his policies did
nothing to accelerate a reopening
trend that was already underway
when he took office.
An effort to reopen the majority
of schools within his first 100 days
was among Biden’s core promises
prior to taking office. When he fi-
nally put forward the specifics in
mid-February, he said it meant
having “close to” the majority of
K–8 grades opened for in-person
instruction five days a week by
the end of April.
That goal has already been met,
according to data from Burbio,
a community tracking firm that
crunches publicly available
data collected from 1,200 school
districts, representing 35,000
schools, in all 50 states, accord-
ing to its website.
By March 8, more than 51 per-
cent of grades K–8 were open for
traditional in-person instruc-
tion, although looking at middle-
school grades only, less than 41
percent were open.
In the week starting April 5,
more than 55 percent of students
will attend schools that offer tra-
ditional in-person instruction,
to get a gun or is intoxicated.
“Today I signed legislation that
protects the 2nd Amendment rights
of Iowa’s law-abiding citizens while
still preventing the sale of firearms
to criminals and other dangerous
individuals,” Reynolds said in a
statement after signing the bill.
“This law also takes greater steps
to inform law enforcement about
an individual’s mental illness
helping ensure firearms don’t end
up in the wrong hands,” she said.
“We will never be able to outlaw
or prevent every single bad ac-
tor from getting a gun, but what
we can do is ensure law-abiding
citizens have full access to their
constitutional rights while keep-
ing Iowans safe.”
The new law has been supported
by the National Rifle Association
(NRA), which applauded the gov-
ernor for signing the bill allowing
law-abiding adults to carry a con-
cealed firearm without first asking
the government for a permit.
On March 22, House File 756
passed 60–37, with all Republicans
voting for it, along with Democratic
state Rep. Wes Breckenridge. Re-
publicans have a majority in the
Senate and previously passed a
similar piece of legislation through
a committee.
Iowa now becomes one of 19
states in the U.S. that no longer re-
quires law-abiding citizens to get
a permit before carrying a gun for
self-defense.
The 18 other states that elimi-
nated this requirement are Alaska,
Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas,
Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Mis-
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
including nearly 64 percent in
elementary grades, over 50 per-
cent in middle school grades, and
nearly 47 percent in high schools.
The reopening trend started
in early September 2020, when
school lockdowns reached their
zenith. Only 19 percent of stu-
dents went to schools that offered
traditional instruction, Burbio re-
ported on Sept. 2.
The reopening
trend started in
early September
2020, when school
lockdowns reached
their zenith.
Reopening proceeded at a pace
of about 2 percent per week un-
til November, when it reversed
because of another wave of
lockdowns. Closures peaked in
early January, when less than 31
percent of schools offered tradi-
tional instruction. Since then, the
reopening resumed at a pace of
about 2 percent per week.
The data show no clear indica-
tion that Biden policies sped up
the reopening.
On Feb. 12, the Centers for
A customer shops at WEX Gunworks in Delray Beach, Fla., on March 24, 2021.
souri, Montana, New Hampshire,
North Dakota, Oklahoma, South
Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Vir-
ginia, and Wyoming.
Democrats have opposed the bill,
saying the reversal is dangerous
and a “reckless disregard for the
safety and well-being of Iowans.”
“Our communities aren’t safer
when criminals can legally pur-
chase a handgun without a back-
ground check,” Iowa Democratic
Party Chair Rep. Ross Wilburn
said in a statement in reaction to
Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) released school reopening
guidelines that divided districts
into blue, yellow, orange, and red
zones based on local data regard-
ing the spread of the CCP (Chi-
nese Communist Party) virus.
In orange and red zones, only
partial in-person instruction
should have been allowed, ac-
cording to the guidelines. But
when Burbio crunched the data,
virtually all American children
lived in red and orange zones.
They still do, in fact. School re-
opening proceeds despite the
guidelines, it appears.
On March 19, the CDC allowed
schools to reduce “social distanc-
ing” between students and staff
from six feet to three feet. Some
districts mentioned the guide-
lines in their decisions to allow
more in-person instruction, ac-
cording to Burbio. But the re-
opening data show no accelera-
tion of the reopening trend.
Public school officials have
been under pressure from parents
and some politicians to reopen,
particularly after health authori-
ties said children are unlikely to
spread the virus.
The virtual instruction that
schools largely implemented
proved significantly less effec-
tive than traditional classrooms.
Many parents have struggled to
cope with the added responsibil-
ity of providing an education for
their children. Tax dollars that
were supposed to pay for that
service often bought them mere
access to virtual lessons that did
little to ensure the children paid
any attention to it.
While some parents respond-
ed by organizing “pod schools,”
where several children get togeth-
er in a home to receive instruc-
tion from a hired tutor, even that
was largely prohibited under the
more draconian lockdowns in
some states.
Experts worry about the long-
term impact on academic perfor-
mance, mental health risks, and
even long-term psychological
damage to children experienc-
ing protracted lockdowns. Mean-
while, hotline calls regarding
children and domestic violence
went up more than 50 percent
during lockdown months, and re-
ports of predators enticing minors
online almost doubled last year.
Reynolds signing the bill.
“Background checks are wildly
popular, even among gun owners,
as a common-sense way to keep
people safe,” he said. “Legislation
like this serves no purpose other
than appeasing the gun industry
and its powerful lobbyists.”
Mark Olivia, director of public
affairs at the National  Shoot-
ing Sports Foundation, told The
Epoch Times that laws restrict-
ing gun ownership have dubious
origins.
Use of Force Against Floyd ‘Totally
Unnecessary’: Police Lieutenant
ZACHARY STIEBER
The force used by police officers
against George Floyd last year
in the moments preceding his
death was “totally unneces-
sary,” a Minneapolis Police De-
partment lieutenant testified on
April 2.
“Pulling him down to the
ground face down and putting
your knee on a neck for that
amount of that amount of time,
it’s just uncalled for,” Lt. Richard
Zimmerman, the head of the de-
partment’s homicide unit and
the department’s longest-serving
officer, told the court in Minne-
apolis during the trial of former
officer Derek Chauvin.
“I saw no reason why the offi-
cers felt they were in danger, if
that’s what they felt.”
Floyd, 46, was arrested on May
25, 2020, for allegedly using a
counterfeit bill at a convenience
store. He resisted being hand-
cuffed and then resisted being
placed into a patrol car, telling
officers he was claustrophobic
and complaining he couldn’t
breathe.
Chauvin and two other offi-
cers, Thomas Lane and J. Alex-
ander Kueng, pinned Floyd to the
ground amid the struggle, with
Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s
neck and Keung and Lane con-
trolling his legs. Floyd continued
to thrash but later became still
as officers kept restraining him.
After approximately nine min-
utes, paramedics arrived and
rushed Floyd to a hospital, where
he was declared dead.
Chauvin is facing several
charges, including second-de-
gree murder. The other officers
are set to be put on trial later
this year for aiding and abet-
ting murder.
During day five of the Chauvin
trial on April 2, Zimmerman, a
veteran of the force since 1985,
said officers are required to pro-
vide medical care to a person in
distress.
“The ambulance will get there
in whatever amount of time, and
in that time period, you need to
provide medical assistance be-
fore they arrive,” he said.
NATION | A7
JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES
“The history of gun-control laws
really has its roots in Jim Crow-
era racist laws that are designed
to deny people their rights,” he
said. “Your permit is your Second
Amendment right.  The idea of
having to get a permit to be able
to exercise your Second Amend-
ment right to keep and bear arms
is antithetical to what your rights
are as an American at birth.”
Zachary Stieber
contributed to this report.
POOL VIA REUTERS
In a still image from video, Minne-
apolis police Lt. Richard Zimmer-
man answers questions on the fifth
day of the trial of former Minneap-
olis police officer Derek Chauvin for
the death of George Floyd, in Min-
neapolis on April 2, 2021.
Zimmerman also said that
the level of force Chauvin used
is considered “top-tier deadly
force.”
Asked why by a prosecutor, he
said, “Because of the fact that if
your knee is on a person’s neck,
that can kill them.”
David Ploeger, a retired Min-
neapolis Police Department
sergeant, was the first former or
current police officer to testify
during the trial. He told the court
last week that officers restraining
Floyd could have stopped “when
Mr. Floyd was no longer offering
up any resistance.”
Zimmerman, under question-
ing from Chauvin’s attorney, said
a person who is handcuffed on
the ground, as Floyd was, can
still pose a threat. Some people
are held in a restrained position
until emergency medical work-
ers arrive on the scene, he said.
Zimmerman also said officers
have been trained to put a knee
on a person’s shoulder but didn’t
recall being trained to use a knee
in a similar way as a restraint
technique. Department policy
allows an officer to use whatever
means are necessary to protect
himself and others.
The April 2 court proceed-
ings followed testimony from
Floyd’s girlfriend, who said she
had rushed him to the hospital
in March 2020 because of an
overdose.
The trial will resume on April 5.
A8 | NATION
J&J Takes Over
Baltimore Vaccine
Plant Where 15
Million Doses Were
Contaminated
GQ PAN
Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson
said on April 3 that it’s taking charge of
a Baltimore manufacturing plant where
15 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine
were spoiled last month.
The move came after workers at the fa-
cility of Emergent BioSolutions, a Mary-
land-based biotech company that has
been manufacturing both the Johnson
& Johnson and the AstraZeneca vac-
cines, accidentally swapped materials
for the two vaccines.
The move came after work-
ers accidentally swapped
materials for the Johnson
& Johnson and the Astra-
Zeneca vaccines.
While the AstraZeneca vaccine has yet
to be authorized for use by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA), the
Biden administration has entered loan
deals to send 2.5 million and 1.5 million
U.S.-manufactured doses to Mexico and
Canada, respectively.
In a statement, Johnson & Johnson said
it is “assuming all responsibility for the
manufacture of the drug substance for its
COVID-19 vaccine at the Emergent BioSo-
lutions Inc. Bayview facilities.”
Johnson & Johnson is “adding dedicated
leaders for operations and quality, and
significantly increasing the number of
manufacturing, quality, and technical
operations personnel to work with the
company specialists already at Emergent,”
according to the statement.
The company added that the doses dis-
tributed to date “have complied with the
rigorous quality standards of the company
and the regulations,” and that it expects to
deliver about 100 million single-shot doses
of its vaccines to the U.S. government.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca confirmed
April 3 in a statement that it’s relocating
the production of its vaccines from the
Baltimore facility.
“The company will work with the U.S.
Government to identify an alternative lo-
cation for domestic drug substance pro-
duction,” AstraZeneca said, adding that
it’s currently progressing submission to the
FDA for an Emergency Use Authorization.
Emergent said last week that the single
contaminated batch of the drug compo-
nent was identified and properly disposed
of before it was shipped.
“Importantly, the quality control sys-
tems worked as designed to detect and
isolate this single batch,” Emergent said.
“Discarding a batch of bulk drug sub-
stance, while disappointing, does occa-
sionally happen during vaccine manufac-
turing, which is a complex and multi-step
biological process.”
President Joe Biden last month an-
nounced his intention to order another
100 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s
one-dose, refrigerator-stored vaccines.
The company has supplied about 4 mil-
lion doses to the U.S. government since
the vaccine received FDA approval in
February.
“I’m doing this because, in this wartime
efforts, we need maximum flexibility,”
Biden said at a White House meeting with
J&J CEO Alex Gorsky and Merck CEO Ken
Frazier. “There is always a chance that
we’ll encounter unexpected challenges
or we’ll—there will be a new need for a
vaccine effort—or vaccination effort.”
DNC Chair Says Party Must Seek
to Restore the Democratic ‘Brand’
JACK PHILLIPS
Democratic National Committee (DNC)
Chairman Jaime Harrison said the party
has to attempt to restore the “brand” of the
Democratic Party.
“It’s not even just with Republicans, the
Democrat brand with some of the folks
who are core at the base of our party is
not the greatest. And so I want to spend a
lot of time, energy, and effort understand-
ing why the brand is where it is, what it is
and how, and what we can do in order to
improve it,” Harrison told The Daily Beast
over the weekend.
President Joe Biden talks to reporters in the East Room of the White House on March 25, 2021.
Hunter Biden Says He’s ‘Cooperating
Completely’ With DOJ Investigation
JACK PHILLIPS
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden,
confirmed that he’s “cooperating com-
pletely” with federal investigators inves-
tigating his tax affairs.
In an interview with CBS News that aired
April 4, the younger Biden was asked about
the Justice Department probe into his fi-
nances.
“I can say this: I am cooperating com-
pletely, and I’m absolutely certain—I’m
100 percent certain—that at the end of the
investigation, that I will be cleared of any
wrongdoing,” Hunter Biden said. “All I can
do is cooperate and trust in the process.”
Last December, it was revealed that fed-
eral prosecutors in Delaware were investi-
gating the younger Biden’s finances.
“I learned yesterday for the first time
that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware
advised my legal counsel, also yesterday,
that they are investigating my tax affairs,”
Hunter said in a statement at the time. “I
take this matter very seriously, but I am
confident that a professional and objective
review of these matters will demonstrate
that I handled my affairs legally and ap-
propriately, including with the benefit of
professional tax advisers.”
Then-candidate Joe Biden echoed the
statement, saying he supports his son.
Hunter Biden’s business dealings be-
came a point of criticism during the 2020
presidential election by then-President
Donald Trump and other Republicans af-
ter The New York Post reported on Hunter’s
overseas activities in Ukraine and China.
A former associate, Tony Bobulinski, then
came forward about an alleged business
venture between him, Hunter Biden, the
president’s brother Jim Biden, and CEFC
China Energy, a conglomerate with deep
ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and
strongly suggested that the firm engaged
Hunter to gain access to his powerful fa-
ther and connections.
Following the publication of the NY
Post’s story, Twitter moved to ban the
sharing of links to the article, and a Face-
Harrison made a reference to his unsuc-
cessful bid to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham
(R-S.C.) in South Carolina in November
2020.
“I experienced it on my own race, Lind-
sey [Graham] and his crew of dark money
effectively labeled me as somebody who
believed in defunding the police. My
grandfather on my stepfather’s side was
in the Detroit police department for 40
years. So I don’t believe in that,” Harrison
told the left-wing news outlet.
Since the Nov. 3 election, some Demo-
cratic lawmakers have lamented the “de-
fund the police” rhetoric that was used
Hunter Biden addresses the 2020 Democratic National Convention on Aug. 20, 2020.
book spokesman told news outlets that it
had limited the NY Post’s reach. The move
spurred accusations of unfair treatment
and censorship.
Hunter Biden’s business
dealings became a point  it was revealed that he asked Ukraine’s
of criticism during the
2020 presidential election,
after The New York Post
reported on his overseas
activities in Ukraine
and China.
In addition, Hunter had served from 2014
to 2019 on the board of a Ukrainian gas
firm, Burisma Holdings—the subject of
a corruption investigation in Ukraine—
for a reportedly lucrative monthly salary.
Republicans and Trump accused Biden of
MICHAEL CIAGLO/GETTY IMAGES
Democratic National Committee Chairman
Jaime Harrison speaks in Columbia, S.C., on
Nov. 3, 2020.
by Black Lives Matter and other left-wing
groups during last summer’s riots and
protests. Republicans were able to brand
the Democratic Party of embracing social-
MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
HANDOUT/DNCC VIA GETTY IMAGES
knowing about Hunter Biden’s role at the
company, citing Biden’s public statements
about getting a Ukrainian prosecutor who
was investigating Burisma, Viktor Shokin,
fired. Trump then became the subject of
a House Democratic-led impeachment
effort that alleged the former president
engaged in a quid pro quo scheme after
president to “look into” the matter.
President Biden has denied that he knew
about his son’s business dealings in both
Ukraine and China. Biden also said his
work in Ukraine when he was vice presi-
dent under the Obama administration was
related to rooting out corruption that has
long plagued the country.
The younger Biden, meanwhile, has long
denied any wrongdoing in his overseas
business dealings.
“Did I make a mistake? Maybe in the
grand scheme of things,” Hunter Biden
said in an ABC News interview in 2019.
“But did I make a mistake based on some
ethical lapse? Absolutely not.”
ism and cancel culture in the midst of the
violence.
“But they were able to do it because the
Democratic brand had been so tarnished
in South Carolina that people would be-
lieve anything. If they said, ‘Jamie kicked
a puppy the other day,’ they would have
believed it,” Harrison added. “We have to
take credit and claim the things that we
will have gotten done over the course of
these next two years. We’re going to do a
lot for rural America.”
A recent poll from Ipsos/USA Today
found that only 18 percent of Americans
support defunding the police.
“Don’t defund the police department.
We need them here to keep law and order,”
Kevin Hayworth, 66, of Garner, Iowa, told
USA Today. “We need our police depart-
ment just as they are.”
 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
Forced COVID-19
Vaccination
Widespread in
China, Sources Say
FRANK YUE
The Chinese Communist Party
(CCP) has been imposing COV-
ID-19 vaccinations upon the public,
amid concerns over efficacy and
health implications, according to
people familiar with the situation.
A female netizen named Duan
Da Dan posted in Chinese on social
media site Weibo on March 31: “I’m
really annoyed that my employer
forces me to receive shots even
if I’m planning to get pregnant.
[They] never consider the possible
impact on the fetus.”
Another internet user claimed in
a Chinese-language Weibo post on
March 30 that she had broken out
in hives twice, indicating she suf-
fers from allergies, yet her employer
was still pressuring her every day
to get vaccinated.
No Vaccination Certificate, No
Entry
The Epoch Times has learned that
a local market authority in Hainan
Province has ruled that no one is
permitted to enter the market with-
out a vaccination certificate. A veg-
etable retailer with the surname
Liu in the Honggang Market of
Sanya city, Hainan Province, told
The Epoch Times that no one can
enter the market without having
received the vaccine.
“We didn’t receive the notice un-
til March 23. But we have to get
vaccinated on March 24,” Liu said.
He added that reduced customer
traffic had led to a one-third drop
in sales.
“It’s true in the whole city of San-
ya. It’s mandatory.
“Nobody wants it. ... Nobody can
tell what impact it will have on our
health.”
A seafood retailer with the sur-
name Wang reported that early on
March 24, more than 100 urban
administrative and law enforce-
ment personnel showed up to
guard the market. They examined
every visitor’s health code before
letting them in.
Vaccination: A Critical Political
Task
Getting the shot is deemed an
Beijing Targets Falun Gong
Refugees in US, Tracking
Their Whereabouts
EVA FU
NEW YORK—Chinese authorities
are attempting to track down Fa-
lun Gong practitioners who fled the
regime’s persecution by collecting
their overseas address and other
personal data, a number of adher-
ents told The Epoch Times.
Harassment of the Falun Gong
community in China by the Com-
munist Party has been common-
place since the regime began a de-
cades-long eradication campaign
against the faith group, subjecting
millions to various abuses includ-
ing torture, imprisonment, forced
labor, and even forced organ har-
vesting. According to its website,
Falun Gong is a self-improvement
practice rooted in Buddhist tra-
ditions. It promotes the values of
truthfulness, compassion, and
tolerance.
In the past few weeks, espe-
cially around the convening of
China’s politically sensitive “Two
Sessions”—the regime’s most im-
portant annual meeting—police
pressed for personal information
of Falun Gong practitioners from
their families in China, obstruct-
ing their normal activities if they
refused to comply.
When Ling Jilei’s parents were
important political task to be per-
formed in all of China’s enterprises,
schools, and community centers.
Recently, Sokon Group, a large
private firm in Chongqing city,
demanded that its employees com-
plete vaccination as a critical politi-
cal task, according to an internal
notice obtained from the company
by The Epoch Times.
The document, dated March 25,
required all units under the group
to “take vaccination as a critical po-
litical task” and perform their re-
sponsibility to ensure “it be applied
in principle to all employees be-
tween the ages of 18 and 59 except
pregnant or breastfeeding women
... and the vaccination should be
completed at local town hospitals
by April 30, 2021.”
“Whichever unit or individual
fails to respond to the vaccination
properly or commits an error will be
held accountable,” the notice said.
Even though it’s a private firm,
Sokon has links to the CCP. Com-
pany Chair Zhang Xinghai is a dep-
uty to the CCP’s National People’s
Congress, its website says.
CCP branches are also available
in the company, whose Chinese-
language site says, “The CCP com-
mittee of the company always
adheres to the party’s leadership,
maintaining a high degree of
consistency with the Central CCP
Committee in terms of ideology
and action.”
Likewise, vaccination is also at
the top of the agenda in many other
parts of China.
An online image dated March 25
shows a notice issued by Kuliushu
village of Shunyi district, declaring
that residents who fail to be vac-
cinated by April 6 will be banned
from entering the community.
A man with the surname Li from
Simajia town, Jiamusi city, in Hei-
longjiang province told The Epoch
Times that local authorities issued
a notice on March 29 to residents
via WeChat that vaccination was
required. To emphasize its impor-
tance, the notice was reissued on
the morning of March 30. It was
also broadcast on loudspeakers in
individual villages already set up
for the shots.
SAMIRA BOUAOU/THE EPOCH TIMES
Falun Gong practitioners at a rally
commemorating the 20th anniver-
sary of the persecution of Falun
Gong in China, on the West Lawn of
the U.S. Capitol in Washington on
July 18, 2019.
selling their house and needed to
update Ling’s place of residence
with the local police, the police
turned down the routine procedure
three times, she said.
“The first day, they wouldn’t do
it. Then they asked for my address
and phone number. The next time,
they asked me to take a photo with
my child along with our IDs,” Ling,
a Falun Gong practitioner who fled
Xinjiang to the United States five
People wait to be inoculated with a COVID-19 vaccine at the Chaoyang Museum of Urban Planning in Beijing on Jan.
15, 2021.
The notice highlighted “uncondi-
tional vaccination,” unless people
show a recent medical record indi-
cating ineligibility for vaccination.
“Those who refuse vaccination
will have to bear all expenses when
they contract COVID-19 and will
be held legally responsible for
spreading the virus to others,” the
notice threatened.
In parts of Beijing, community
centers promised benefits to en-
courage vaccination, including
tickets to visit Beijing’s Lama
Temple, extra holidays, and other
incentives. In some cases, elderly
people could be given one or two
boxes of fresh eggs if they consent
to the vaccine.
Hesitant Staff at State-Run
Enterprises
Likewise, employees from Bei-
jing’s state-run enterprises feel
pressure as well, according to
Chinese news reports.
A female staffer with the surname
Hu said her employer posted a no-
tice requesting all employees to
be vaccinated as soon as possible,
according to a Chinese-language
report in VOA on March 15.
She revealed that the utility man-
agement company in their office
building had ordered a vaccina-
tion rate of more than 90 percent
of tenants and that all units must
collect relevant data. Though she
hated implementing forced vac-
cination, Hu was afraid she would
face investigation or punishment
if she didn’t comply.
Another staffer with the surname
Ho, also from a Beijing state-run
years ago, told The Epoch Times.
“The local police know me by
name,” she said. “What I am do-
ing, what my job is ... which school
my child attends. They asked about
everything.”
Ling is far from the only Chi-
nese person having to live with
state monitoring even after having
found refuge overseas. Adherents
originally from Beijing, Guizhou
Province of southwestern China,
Guangdong Province in the south,
and eastern Shandong Province
have reported similar experiences.
‘Rock Bearing Down on My Heart’
The intimidation and monitor-
ing appear to match government
instructions seen in a leaked 2015
internal government  document
from northeastern Liaoning Prov-
ince, in which officials ordered the
comprehensive collection of infor-
mation about Falun Gong practitio-
ners who had left China, including
their Chinese and foreign names,
photographs, new identification
documents such as green cards,
and key details about their fami-
lies in China.
The document tasked local vil-
lages and work units to “analyze
every individual based on their re-
lations in China and set up custom-
ized working plans” for the central
government authorities’ approval.
A 2020 document from the stand-
ing committee of China’s rubber-
stamp legislature, the National
People’s Congress, showed that the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
company, corroborated Hu’s state-
ment, adding that all local state en-
terprises followed similar policies
regarding COVID-19. He told VOA
that he had decided not to take the
vaccine because he was preparing
to have a child and was concerned
about its impact on the fetus.
Security Concern Leads to
Hesitancy
There is vaccine hesitancy among
the Chinese public due to concerns
over the vaccine’s efficacy.
In mid-February, a survey of
756 medical workers in Zhejiang
province demonstrated that only
28 percent of respondents wanted
to get vaccinated after the shots
were available, according to the
Chinese Journal of Vaccines and
Immunization.
Evidence suggests that Chinese
authorities are concerned about
the current rate of vaccinations,
which has been slower than ex-
pected, although more than 100
million shots have been admin-
istered, according to China’s state
media outlets.
An internet user nicknamed Tu-
CaoFakeNews expressed strong
skepticism in a March 31 post,
with an image of a local informed
consent notice for inactivated vac-
cines against COVID-19. When it
came to vaccine clinical trial data,
it read in Chinese, “There has not
been human observation data
available; and we cannot root out
the possibility of increased con-
dition of a vaccine taker when he
or she contracts COVID-19 after
receiving shots.”
continues to see suppressing Falun
Gong as key to its political stability.
“There’s never been true rule of
law under the CCP,” Peng Yong-
feng, who was a human rights law-
yer before he left China, told The
Epoch Times. “They have only one
ultimate goal: to gather and store
as much information as possible
from the Chinese communities so
as to maximize their control of the
populace.”
For Ling—who was arrested mul-
tiple times for her faith in China, at
one point being cuffed to a wooden
board and electrocuted by Chinese
prison guards—the police monitor-
ing has rekindled her fears.
“It was as if I was back in China
that instant,” Ling said, recalling
how she felt when learning about
the incident from her father. “That
entire night, I felt there was a rock
bearing down on my heart. I felt that
they could come to arrest me the
very next day.”
In Xinjiang, Falun Gong practi-
tioners and other ethnic and reli-
gious minorities have been placed
in internment camps for refusing
to renounce their beliefs or to toe
the party line. After Ling finished
serving time in the labor camp, she
still had to report to the local au-
thorities weekly. The police regu-
larly visited or made phone calls to
probe about her activities, she said.
She said she was lucky to escape
overseas—she has a friend, also a
Falun Gong practitioner, who was
barred from leaving Xinjiang de-
spite holding a U.S. visa.
CHINA | A9
NOEL CELIS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
A study suggested that China’s
Sinopharm vaccine efficacy rate
is only 11.5 percent to 33 percent,
according to a March 10 report on
Speevr, a California-based finan-
cial technology platform.
In Hong Kong, 11 residents died
after receiving shots of CoronaVac,
a vaccine developed by Chinese
drugmaker Sinovac. The deaths are
under investigation, according to
Hong Kong media.
Additionally, Brazil’s findings in
a late-stage trial show that Coro-
naVac was found to be only 50.4
percent effective.
Activist Lawyer: CCP Treats
Public as Guinea Pigs
An activist lawyer with the sur-
name Wu told the Chinese-lan-
guage Epoch Times that China’s
public servants are also being
forced to receive shots, although
it’s said they have priority.
He emphasized that Chinese-
made vaccines are unreliable, and
noted that it’s impossible for China
to develop a safe product within a
short time period, given the history
of previous vaccine accidents that
have led to children’s deaths and
adult disability cases.
Wu says it’s shocking that Chi-
nese authorities are promoting
China-made vaccines to more
than a billion citizens while they
are clearly of poor quality.
“They’re really taking citizens’
lives for granted,” he said.
Gu Xiaohua, Hong Ning,
and Zhang Yujie contributed
to this report.
“It gave me the feeling I was be-
ing kept in check,” she said of the
weekly reports to the police station.
A Falun Gong practitioner from
Guizhou, who asked to remain
anonymous to protect his family’s
safety, said his hometown village
committee recently demanded his
birth date, U.S. address, and details
about his workplace.
The village officials told his family
they were doing a population count.
The man, however, left China two
decades ago and has not lived in the
region for more than 30 years.
Falun Gong practitioner Li Peng
from Shandong now lives in New
York. She told The Epoch Times
that the police in her hometown
called her mother insisting to
know where she now works and
lives, as well as her opinion on
China-related issues.
“How can the Chinese Com-
munist Party oversee what people
think?” she said.
What the police demands of Li’s
family is a testament to the “ex-
treme” nature of the regime’s gov-
ernance model, Peng said.
“They’re saying that, regard-
less of whether you’re in China or
overseas, as long as you’re Chinese,
you’re under the jurisdiction of the
Chinese government,” she said.
“They treat Falun Gong as their
enemy because they know what’s
coming to them when Falun Gong’s
efforts make people aware of what
they are.”
Li Xin’an contributed to this report.
A10 | WORLD MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021

Pakistan Struggles to Stop Its Citizens

Workers on a section of the Iran–
From Smuggling Oil From Iran Pakistan pipeline, in the Iranian
border city of Chah Bahar, in 2013.

ATTA KENARE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

VENUS UPADHAYAYA

Thousands in Balochistan, a south-

western province in Pakistan, are
involved in smuggling oil across
the restive border with Iran every
year. While the phenomenon is
not new, the Pakistan government
has recently ordered a halt to the
illegal trade as fears mount about
economic losses in the billions of
rupees.
The falling price of Iranian oil
also has led to increased smug-
gling, according to Fatemeh Aman
is a non-resident senior fellow at
the Middle East Institute.
“In a region so economically de-
prived on both sides of the border,
the opportunities for earning a liv-
ing are often limited to either traf-
ficking drugs or smuggling fuel,”
Aman wrote in an article pub-
lished in March by the Jamestown
Foundation’s Terrorism Monitor.
“Fuel carriers lack any other in-
come besides carrying gasoline
and diesel fuel from Iran to Paki-
stan, with the big money going to
the organizers. In contrast, drivers
and truckers receive only a small
share of the profit even though they
are the ones who take the most
risks.”
Pakistan Today reports that 1.2
million liters (about 317,000 gal-
lons) of oil are smuggled into Paki-
stan on a daily basis by way of tank- STR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

ers that operate by bribing officials
on both sides—12 percent of the
total oil smuggled out of Iran.
The illegal sale into neighboring
countries’ markets is actually help-
ing Iran to bypass U.S. economic
sanctions, according to  Ahmed
Quraishi, a Pakistani journalist
based in Islamabad who has been
covering Iran affairs for more than
two decades.
“This is especially true in the
cases of Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan,
and Afghanistan,” Quraishi wrote,
adding that Pakistan is unwilling-
ly subsidizing Iran’s budget to the
tune of $1 billion a year. Each year,
3.6 billion liters of oil, or 63,000
barrels, are smuggled out of Iran
to various countries, according to
a report by Pakistan Today.
“The Iranian government is
forcing Pakistan to subsidize the
violation of U.S. sanctions and is
making Pakistan pay for it. This is
a huge favor that Tehran is extract-
ing from Islamabad without giving
anything in return.”
Within Pakistan, this illicit oil
from Iran has caused shortages as
well as erratic fuel prices, with au-
thorities attributing a 2020 short-
age to it.
Crackdown and Violence
At the beginning of the year, the
Pakistan administration took ac-
tion against oil smuggling, ap-
proving a comprehensive plan
that listed 2,094 illegal petrol retail
outlets in three provinces, accord-
ing to leading Pakistani daily The
Dawn.
Following the approval of the ac-
tion plan by the Pakistani admin-
istration, another incident height-
ened the issue of the smuggling: On
Feb. 22, soldiers of Iran’s Islamic
In a region so Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
economically detained and then opened fire on
deprived on a group of Baluch fuel carriers that
were protesting after the Iranian
both sides of the government blocked the passage of
border, the op- their fuel loads into Pakistan.
portunities for Two people were killed and
six others wounded. One of the
earning a living wounded was a Pakistani citizen.
are often limited Pakistani outlet Arab News report-
to either traf- ed that Iranian forces had also fired
at the smugglers inside Pakistan
ficking drugs or territory, in a separate incident.
smuggling fuel. The IRGC gains some funding for
its operations from the illicit trade
Fatemeh Aman, that happens through the border
senior fellow, triangle where Iran, Afghanistan,
Middle East Institute and Pakistan meet, Quraishi said.
“Locals say IRGC officers have
stakes in oil and diesel trade, Iranian border security officials (L) and Pakistani border security officials (R)
smuggling of contraband, drugs, shake hands at Zero Point in the Iranian border town of Taftan on April 21, 2019.
and electronics. Revenue generat- ARIF ALI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
ed from these operations partially
funds IRGC’s operations and local
proxies in Afghanistan and Paki-
stan,” he said.
Iran’s underground economy is
estimated to be worth at least $140
billion, and the IRGC is its chief
controller and beneficiary, Saeed
Ghasseminejad, an associate fel-
low at the Foundation for Defense
of Democracies, wrote in a 2015 ar-
ticle. The situation Ghasseminejad
describes remains unchanged.
“This income provides the
Guards with financial indepen-
dence from Iran’s civil politicians.
It also puts the IRGC in charge of
Iran’s underworld and its criminal
gangs,” Ghasseminejad wrote.
The Associated Press A man stands next to a horsecart laden with oil drums on a street in Lahore,
contributed to this report. Pakistan, on Sept. 27, 2020.

Vandals Sabotage 7 Street
Stands Exposing CCP’s
Persecution Over 24-Hour
Period in Hong Kong
CONTINUED FROM A1
torture, abuse, and even death in
detention, according to the Falun
Dafa Information Center.
For more than two decades,
Falun Gong practitioners outside
of mainland China, including in
Hong Kong, have appealed for
an end to the persecution. Many
have set up public information
stands on city streets to raise
awareness and expose the severe
human rights abuses committed
by the CCP.
However, local Falun Gong prac-
titioners in Hong Kong have found
it harder to carry out these activi-
ties in recent times.
On April 2, a Falun Gong road-
side booth on Argyle Street in the
Mong Kok district suffered a loss
of around HK $21,000 ($2,700),
after vandals damaged four ban-
ners, two flagpoles, and 14 display
boards, according to a Falun Gong
practitioner who tried in vain to
stop the perpetrators.
The next day, another three
stands in the Mong Kok and Wong
Tai Sin districts were sabotaged
by a group of six individuals be-
tween 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
The police were called and said
they would provide a heavy patrol
presence following the incidents.
An Order From the Communist
Party
Sarah Liang, chairwoman of the
Hong Kong Falun Dafa Associa-
tion, condemned the attacks on
Falun Gong street stands.
Liang told The Epoch Times that
the sabotage is clearly tied to the
CCP and that it may have been
an act of desperation, a sign that
the regime “is reaching the end
of its rope.”
Since March 6, unattended
poster displays that slander Fa-
lun Gong and its founder have
appeared on the streets near
where Falun Gong information
stations are set up in Mong Kok,
Tsim Sha Tsui, Causeway Bay, and
Wan Chai.
The posters are written in sim-
plified Chinese characters—
rather than traditional Chinese
used in Hong Kong—and worded
in a similar way to CCP propa-
ganda in mainland China, ac-
cording to Liang.
Liang said that the
sabotage may be a
sign that the re-
gime ‘is reaching
the end of its rope.’
On March 25, a woman tend-
ing to the propaganda posters
told The Epoch Times that the
“Communist Party in Shenzhen”
issued the order to defame Falun
Gong and asked her to send video
recordings to mainland China
every day. She denied receiving
money from the Party.
This is not the first time that
Falun Gong information stations
have been sabotaged in the city.
Several booths were vandalized
last year, most notably on Dec. 20,
2020, when a man stole printouts
from a Falun Gong booth in Tsim
Sha Tsui and threw display boards
into a nearby harbor.
Last year, a national security
law went into effect in Hong
Kong on the eve of July 1, pushed
through by the CCP. Since then,
public freedoms in the territory
have been severely undermined.
Dozens of pro-democracy figures
have been charged or convicted
under the legislation or similar
laws.
Liang believes that the Falun
Gong information booths, up-
holding Hongkongers’ right to be
informed about the persecution,
have had a positive effect on the
city. “They bring Hong Kong peo-
ple hope for the future,” she said.
 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021 WORLD | A11

Jordan Says Prince Liaised With ‘Foreign Parties’

Over Plot to Destabilize Country
Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister
Ayman Safadi said on April 4
that King Abdullah’s half-brother
and former crown prince, Prince
Hamza, liaised with foreign par-
ties over a plot to destabilize the
country and had been under in-
vestigation for some time.
The military said on April 3
it had issued a warning to the
prince over actions targeting
“security and stability” in the
key U.S. ally. Prince Hamza later
said he was under house arrest.
Several high-profile figures were
detained.
“The investigations had moni-
tored interferences and commu-
nications with foreign parties over
the right timing to destabilize Jor-
dan,” Safadi said.
These included a foreign intel-
ligence agency contacting Prince
Hamza’s wife to organize a plane
for the couple to leave Jordan, he
said.
“Initial investigations showed
these activities and movements
had reached a stage that directly
affected the security and stabil-
ity of the country, but his majesty
decided it was best to talk directly
to Prince Hamza, to deal with it
within the family to prevent it from
being exploited,” he said.
Earlier, Hamza’s mother Queen
Noor, the widow of Jordan’s late
king, defended her son.
“Praying that truth and justice
will prevail for all the innocent
victims of this wicked slander,”
she wrote on Twitter. “God bless
and keep them safe.”
Safadi said the security services
have asked for those involved in
the plot to be referred to the state
security court.
Jordan’s neighbors and allies
expressed solidarity with King
Abdullah over the security mea-
Jordanian princes Hashem bin al-Hussein (L) Hamzah bin al-Hussein (C) and Rashed bin al-Hassan arrive at the opening
of the Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference in the Jordanian capital of Amman on May 8, 2018.
sures in the kingdom, an impor-
tant ally of the United States.
Jordan is seen as one of the most
stable countries in the Middle
East. Echoing statements of sup-
port by other allies and neigh-
bors of Jordan, Morocco’s King
Mohammed VI held a phone call
with King Abdullah II in which he
expressed solidarity and support
for the country’s security mea-
sures, Morocco’s royal palace said
on Sunday.
Some opposition figures have
rallied around Prince Hamza, in
a move that has displeased the
king, officials familiar with the
situation said.
Prince Hamza was dismissed as
heir to the throne in 2004 by King
Abdullah, in a move that consoli-
dated the monarch’s power.
Although he has been sidelined,
Prince Hamza has angered the
authorities by building ties with
disgruntled figures within pow-
erful tribes.
Powerful Tribes
Prince Hamza is not seen as a
major threat to Jordan’s monar-
chy and has been marginalized for
years, but the move against him
represents the first such incident
involving a close member of the
royal family since King Abdullah
came to the throne.
The authorities have become in-
KHALIL MAZRAAWI/AFP/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
creasingly concerned with his ef-
forts to build ties with disgruntled
figures within powerful tribes.
These people known as the Her-
ak have in recent weeks called for
protests against corruption in a
country hit hard by the impact of
COVID-19 on the economy, push-
ing unemployment to record lev-
els and deepening poverty. The
authorities had cracked down on
several demonstrations, detaining
dozens.
Tribes who dominate the secu-
rity forces form the bedrock of
support for the kingdom’s Hash-
emite monarchy.
The state news agency said Bas-
sem Awadallah, a U.S.-educated
longtime confidant of the king
who later became minister of fi-
nance and also adviser to Saudi
Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman, and Sharif Hassan Ben
Zaid, a member of the royal fam-
ily, were detained along with other
unnamed figures.
It gave no details.
The Saudi royal court voiced its
“full support” for King Abdullah
and all decisions taken by him to
maintain security and stability.
Egypt, Lebanon, Bahrain, Iraq,
Kuwait, and Qatar also stood by
him. The U.S. State Department
said the king was a “key partner”
and had its full backing.
Arrests of top officials and roy-
al family members are rare in
Jordan, seen as one of the Arab
world’s most stable countries.
Political Wilderness
Prince Hamza, who had been
groomed by his mother Queen
Noor to succeed his late father
King Hussein, has been pushed
into the political wilderness since
he was sacked as crown prince.
Abdullah succeeded his father
King Hussein, who ruled Jordan
for nearly five decades.
The Jordanian Hashemite dy-
nasty’s tradition under the 1952
constitution gives the succession
to the eldest son but the monarch
retains the option of naming a
brother.
King Abdullah has succeeded
in bringing political stability to
the country and gaining stat-
ure as a prominent Arab leader
whose message of moderation
has found an echo, especially in
Western forums.
The Epoch Times staff
contributed to this report.
From Reuters

Indonesia Landslides, Floods Kill 41 People; Dozens Missing

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Landslides
and flash floods from torrential
rains in eastern Indonesia killed at
least 41 people and displaced thou-
sands, the country’s disaster relief
agency said April 4. More than two
dozen others were missing.
Mud tumbled down from sur-
rounding hills onto dozens of
homes in Lamenele village short-
ly after midnight on Adonara
island in East Nusa Tenggara
province. Rescuers recovered 35
bodies and at least five injured,
said Lenny Ola, who heads the
local disaster agency.
Flash flooding killed at least six
people elsewhere, according to
the National Disaster Mitigation
Agency. Relief efforts were ham-
pered by power cuts, blocked roads
covered in thick mud and debris
as well as the remoteness of the
area surrounded by choppy seas
and high waves, said the agency’s
spokesperson, Raditya Jati.
Seasonal downpours cause
frequent landslides and floods,
killing dozens each year in In-
donesia, a chain of 17,000 islands
where millions of people live in
mountainous areas or near fer-
tile flood plains.
Indonesia’s disaster agency
lowered the death toll late April
4 to 41—from 44—after search
and rescue team verified victims’
data. At least 27 people were still
missing.
The bodies of three people were
recovered after being swept away
by floods in Oyang Bayang vil-
lage, where 40 houses were also
destroyed, Ola said. Hundreds of
people fled submerged homes,
some of which were carried off
by the floodwaters.
In another village, Waiburak,
three people were killed and
seven remained missing when
overnight rains caused rivers to
burst their banks, sending mud-
dy water into large areas of East
Flores district, Ola said. Four in-
jured people were being treated
at a local health clinic.
Hundreds of people were still
involved in the rescue efforts, Jati
told a press conference. At least six
villages have been affected by flash
floods and a landslide that cut five
bridges on the island, he said.
Photos released by the agency
showed rescuers and police and
military personnel taking resi-
dents to shelters.
Authorities were still collecting
information about the full scale
of casualties and damage in the
affected areas, Jati said. Severe
flooding also has been reported
in Bima, a town in the neighbor-
ing province of West Nusa Teng-
gara, forcing nearly 10,000 people
to flee.
In January, 40 people were killed
in two landslides in West Java
province.
From The Associated Press

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TRUTH AND TRADITION

A12 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021

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The Coalition of the Un-Woke
JOSH HAMMER
The metastasis of the
“woke” ideology is the
most comprehensive
threat facing the Ameri-
can republic. It is appall-
ingly totalitarian, insofar
as the woke wield the levers
of cancel culture to suppress all dissident
speech, root out all wrongthink, and
achieve by sheer force an intellectual
homogeneity.
It’s outright racist, insofar as inter-
sectionality and identity politics—to
say nothing of vogue concepts such as
“critical race theory” and “racial eq-
uity”—overtly discriminate on the basis
of race and thus undermine the preemi-
nent American ethos of equal protection
under the law.
As if out of a dystopian novel, though,
the woke ideology has nonetheless be-
come the unifying creed of the American
ruling class. That ruling class, which ex-
tends from public sector bureaucracies to
the Fortune 500 to Hollywood to Silicon
Valley and sundry others in between,
has in recent years universally come to
imbibe, promulgate, and disseminate the
core tenets of “wokeness.”
The solution is for a political
coalition of the un-woke based
around a commonality of inter-
ests arrayed against a mutually
shared, authoritarian foe.
What’s more, that universality often
takes the more insidious form of cross-
institutional collusion: As Matthew
Schmitz put it in an essay for Tablet last
September, “Governmental authorities
and corporations now coordinate in
enforcing the dictates of the new secular
progressive faith.” Thus has the woke ide-
ology completed, à la the Italian Marxist
theorist Antonio Gramsci, its long march
through the institutions.
And let’s not mince words: This is
Marxism. As Israeli political theorist
Yoram Hazony carefully outlined in an
essay for Quillette last August, “The new
Marxists do not use the technical jargon
that was devised by 19th-century
MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021 • A13
Communists,” but “their politics are
based on Marx’s framework for critiqu-
ing liberalism.”
Liberalism—real, actual, Enlighten-
ment liberalism—is increasingly on
the defensive in America. Though there
remain many right-leaning classical
liberals—those who tend to prioritize the
free market and individual liberty—the
locus of the intellectual energy on the
grassroots American right now comes
from those who question whether our
modern societal commitment to values-
neutral liberalism has actually succeed-
ed in “conserving” much of anything. On
the left, the traditional “live and let live”
liberalism of John Stuart Mill has been
far too reluctant to push back in earnest
against the woke ideology.
The ‘woke’ ideology has com-
pleted its long march through
the institutions. And let’s not
mince words: This is Marxism.
Left-liberalism isn’t quite vanquished
yet, but is on the decline, as evidenced
by such developments as the Democratic
Party’s present infatuations with end-
ing the Senate filibuster and packing the
federal courts. So much for “neutral”
proceduralism.
There are certainly some high-profile
left-liberal defectors from the woke ideol-
ogy’s institutional “long march.” Former
New York Times editor Bari Weiss, for
instance, has become something of a
one-woman cottage industry in calling
out the execrableness of “critical race
theory,” the widespread media gaslight-
ing with respect to the true identity of
anti-Asian hate-crime culprits, and other
woke excesses. There are many others,
such as Caitlin Flanagan and even popu-
lar HBO host Bill Maher.
But in their present condition, left-
liberals are too outnumbered and too
ill-equipped to take on the wokesters
themselves. Instead, some sort of new
tactical/strategic alliance is needed.
The solution is for a political coalition
of the un-woke. Admittedly, this coali-
tion will be somewhat crass and, for
many, uncomfortable. But much like the
conservative “fusionism” that ascended
Graffiti by Italian street
muralist Ozmo depicting
Italian communist Antonio
Gramsci covers a wall in
Rome on March 31, 2014.
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to the status of the mainstream Republi-
can Party platform during the era when
the right’s disparate factions all had their
various reasons to oppose Soviet Com-
munism, so, too, can a coalition of the
un-woke be based around a commonal-
ity of interests arrayed against a mutually
shared, authoritarian foe.
As Schmitz wrote, “Liberals who stress
the provisional nature of knowledge,
resist all-encompassing political claims,
and seek space for public error and dis-
agreement, have grounds for agreement
with Jews, Christians, and others who
believe that men are sinful and fallen.”
As “critical race theory” pervades
national K–12 education and the “anti-
racism” of race-hustling charlatans like
Ibram X. Kendi solidifies its beachhead,
the idea for such a coalition is rapidly
gaining steam. In an Epoch Times es-
say last week, educator William Brooks
argued, in remarkably forthright fashion,
that “liberals have only two options to
choose from: Either they will dance to
the tune of the Marxists and help bring
Western democracy to an end, or they
will seek to develop a pro-liberty alliance
with conservatives.” That choice is just as
stark as it is valid.
Those of us on the traditionalist right
must do all we can, in our own unique
capacities, to accelerate this trend and
welcome left-liberals in with open arms
and a warm embrace. The imperative of
the moment demands that left-liberals
join us in an alliance against the neo-
Marxism of wokeness, “cancel culture,”
and “anti-racism.”
The survival of Western civilization,
quite literally, depends on it.
Josh Hammer, a constitutional attorney
by training, is an opinion editor, a podcast
contributor, and a syndicated columnist.
A14 | OPINION
Boycott the All-Star Game!
WESLEY J. SMITH
In a brazen act of cultural impe-
rialism, Major League Baseball
withdrew the 2021 All-Star
Game from Atlanta.
Why make such a drastic
change mere months before the
great game? COVID? No. A failure
of Atlanta to adequately prepare for the
game? No.
MLB flexed its financial muscles to
punish Georgia for passing a voting
rights law that didn’t suit the sensibilities
of its “woke” leadership.
MLB’s action is a step beyond what we
have seen heretofore. When North Caro-
lina passed a law requiring people to use
public restrooms in government facilities
consistent with their biological sex several
years ago, the corporatocracy screamed,
“Transphobia!” and instigated a boycott
of the state—eventually coercing law-
makers into moderating state policy.
At least in the North Carolina case, the
DILBERT
PEANUTS
RED AND ROVER
GRAND AVENUE
MUTT & JEFF
MLB’s action is a step
beyond what we
have seen heretofore.
Daniel Vogelbach #20 of the
Seattle Mariners, Joey Gallo
#13 of the Texas Rang-
ers, Alex Bregman #2 of the
Houston Astros and J.D.
Martinez #28 of the Boston
Red Sox during the 2019
MLB All-Star Game at Pro-
gressive Field in Cleveland,
Ohio, on July 09, 2019.
JASON MILLER/GETTY IMAGES
COMICS
terms of the law were well understood.
Not so in Georgia. MLB isn’t punishing
Georgia for what is in the law, but for
the lying narrative weaved by political
progressives that mischaracterize the
statute’s terms and purposes.
In other words, Georgia is being pun-
ished financially for vote-suppressing
acts it didn’t take. In other words, Major
League Baseball Commissioner Rob
Manfred took this punitive action based
on lies, not only in the media, but most
blatantly by—and at the urging of—the
president of the United States.
Specifically, “President Unity” sank
into the caustic quicksand of demagogu-
ery by claiming the new law is worse
than Jim Crow—which simultaneously
diminished the true evil of that perni-
cious former apartheid system while
smearing Georgia as racist for strength-
ening voter integrity standards. It doesn’t
get lower than that.
Even the Washington Post’s left-leaning
fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, gave Biden
“Four Pinocchios”—meaning a “whop-
per”—for lying that Georgia had short-
ened the hours in which polls could
be open. In actuality, the new law does
no such thing. Moreover, it adds time
for early voting over existing policy, for
example, requiring that at least two Sat-
urdays be available to cast ballots before
official Election Day and making Sunday
voting optional.
Biden also lied when he claimed the
new law prohibits water from being
given to voters standing in line at poll-
ing places. Wrong. The law specifically
provides the authority for poll workers to
place unattended water stations where
people line up to vote.
So, what is all the fuss about? The law
prevents such giveaways as food and
drink as a means of politicking within
150 feet of a polling location. All states
prevent politicking at polling sites, and
GARFIELD
GINGER MEGGS
BIG NATE
DRABBLE
FRANK AND ERNEST
MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
so that provision wasn’t extraordinary.
The hysterical reaction to the Georgia
law exemplified the old Winston Churchill
adage, “A lie gets halfway around the world
before the truth has a chance to get its pants
on.” But that is no excuse for MLB’s action.
Enough time has passed for Georgia
officials and others to adequately rebut
the most egregious falsehoods told about
the law. Clearly, Manfred and other MLB
leadership didn’t pay attention—or, per-
haps more accurately stated, didn’t care
about the facts. This was an opportunity
to flex the corporatocracy’s muscles and
virtue signal. So out of Atlanta the All-
Star Game went.
And how’s this for bitter irony? For all
its claims about caring oh-so-deeply
for liberty, MLB is in business bed with
communist China, helping set up a base-
ball league there as well as livestreaming
games to the country.
You know, China! The same country
that is committing genocide against the
Uighurs, live organ harvests Falun Gong
practitioner prisoners of conscience, and
recently crushed democracy in Hong
Kong—all without so much as a peep
from the freedom-loving Commissioner
Robert D. Manfred!
Here’s the bottom line: We are at a
point in our country’s history in which
major corporations make their own
public policies—ranging from enforcing
public COVID guidelines, stifling debate
on social media, threatening to require
a “vaccine passport” as a cost of doing
business, and, as here, punishing politi-
cal jurisdictions for enacting disfavored
public policies—enforced through “free
market” autocratic coercion.
The corporatocracy’s bullying is much
more complicated to resist than oppres-
sive government action because the Con-
stitution doesn’t apply to private entities.
Perhaps Georgia can bring a civil action
against MLB. The withdrawal from the
venue was arbitrary and had nothing
whatsoever to do with the quality of
the facilities, COVID, or infrastructure
preparations for the big game.
Continued on A16
 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021 OPINION | A15
SPECIAL SERIES: HOW THE SPECTER OF COMMUNISM IS RULING OUR WORLD

Chapter Seventeen: Stephen Gregory, Publisher

Jasper Fakkert, Editor-in-Chief
Channaly Philipp, Life & Tradition,

Globalization and Communism

Travel Editor
Chrisy Trudeau, Mind & Body Editor
Crystal Shi, Home, Food Editor
Sharon Kilarski, Arts & Culture Editor

RABIH MOGHRABI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The Epoch Times here serializes ABOUT US

an adaptation from the Chinese
of “How the Specter of Communism
Is Ruling Our World,” a new book
by the editorial team of the “Nine
Commentaries on the Communist
Party.”
2. Economic Globalization
(cont.)
b. How Globalization Facilitates
the Spread of Communist Ideology
The communist ideology of egalitari-
anism and the ethos of struggle have
ridden around the world on the back of
globalization. It eroded national sover-
eignty, exacerbated regional turmoil,
and heightened the archetypal Marx-
ist conflicts between “the oppressor”
and “the oppressed” that leftists use
as ideological weapons to fight against
the free market, private property, and
other aspects of the “old society.”
The polarization of the rich and
the poor created by globalization
generates a self-perpetuating cycle.
In Western countries, the enormous
outflow of jobs and entire industries
turned the lower and middle classes
into victims of globalization. In the
United States, the massive outflow of
capital and technology to the People’s
Republic of China (PRC) caused mil-
lions of manufacturing job losses,
leading to the loss of industries and a
rise in unemployment. From 2000 to
2011, 65,000 factories were closed, and
5.7 million, or 33 percent, of manufac-
turing jobs were lost. [7]
The gap between rich and poor has
been widening in the United States for
decades. Over the past 30 years, the
growth of the average wage (adjusted
for inflation) has been slowing, bring-
ing about the emergence of the work-
ing poor—those who work or seek jobs
for 27 weeks of the year, but whose in-
come is below the official poverty level.
In 2016, 7.6 million Americans were
counted among the working poor. [8]
This polarization provides fertile
ground for communist and left-wing
movements. Economic problems
impact every aspect of society, but the
demand for a solution based on a per-
ceived unfair distribution of income
has led to a surge of socialist ideology
and of activism for “social justice.”
Meanwhile, the expansion of social
welfare benefits has in turn created
more poor families, generating a vi-
cious cycle of decreased productivity
and individual reliance on the state.
Since 2000, leftist ideology has
grown increasingly influential in the
United States, with youth shifting
increasingly to the left on social, eco-
nomic, and political issues. By the 2016
election, a rising demand for social-
ism was evident, along with increas-
ing political polarization. To a great
extent, the impact of globalization lay
behind these shifts. At the same time,
the greater the economic and social
strife Western democratic societies ap-
peared to be suffering from, the more
triumphant the force of communism
appeared on the world stage.
Without compunction, the com-
munist specter plays both sides of an
issue to achieve its aims. Thus, along
with the advance of globalization
came anti-globalization campaigns,
marked first by the large-scale vio-
Chinese Foreign lent protests in late 1999 in Seattle
Trade and Eco- against the WTO Ministerial Confer-
nomic Cooper- ence. Three large-scale international
ation Minister conferences in 2001 (the Summit of
Shi Guangsheng the Americas meeting in Québec,
signs China’s Canada; the European Union sum-
WTO accession mit in Gothenburg, Sweden; and the
documents dur-
Group of Eight economic summit in
ing a ceremony in
Doha, Qatar, on Genoa, Italy) were also beset by such
Nov. 11, 2001. demonstrations.
Worldwide anti-globalization cam-
paigns have drawn participants from a
variety of backgrounds. A vast major-
ity of them have been left-wing oppo-
nents of capitalism writ large, includ-
ing labor unions and environmental
organizations, as well as victims of
globalization and the underprivileged.
As a result, the public, whether sup-
porters or opponents of globalization,
have ended up inadvertently serving
the goals of communism.
c. Western Capitalism: Nourishing
the Chinese Communist Party
When assessing the successes of
globalization, scholars often cite the
PRC, which rapidly came to the fore
as the world’s second-largest econo-
my. Many predicted that China would
ultimately replace the United States
as the world’s largest economy.
Whereas Mexico, for example,
established low-end manufacturing
as its model, the PRC set out to obtain
the most cutting-edge technology
from the West and then replace its
competitors. To that end, compa-
nies from developed countries were
required to set up joint ventures with
Chinese companies in order to sell
into the China market, which the CCP
then used to extract key technologies.
The Party adopted numerous meth-
ods, from forcing technology transfers
to outright stealing via hacking. After
obtaining this advanced technol-
Employees make
ogy, the PRC pressed its advantage
chips at a factory
of Jiejie Semi- to dump low-priced products on the
conductor Com- world market. With the help of export
pany in Nantong, rebates and subsidies, mainland
in eastern China defeated competitors with
China’s Jiangsu below-market prices and disrupted
Province, on the order of free markets.
March 17, 2021. While most developing countries
opened their domestic markets, the
STR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
CCP created multiple trade barriers to
foreign firms operating in or trading
with China. However, the CCP prof-
ited enormously by taking advantage
of the WTO’s rules upon admission
in 2001, and simultaneously took ad-
vantage of the global market to dump
Chinese products abroad. The Party
failed to open key industries—includ-
ing telecommunications, banking,
and energy—which in turn enabled
mainland China to take advantage of
the global economy while reneging
on its commitments.
Bought off by economic profits, the
Western world turned a blind eye and
a deaf ear to the egregious human
rights abuses the CCP was commit-
ting, and the international commu-
nity continued to confer generous
favor on the regime. In the midst of
globalization, the powerful Chinese
communist regime, together with a
morally corrupt Chinese society, has
struck a blow to the market economy
and trade regulations in the West.
The PRC has ignored the rules and
reaped all the advantages of global-
ization. In a sense, globalization has
been like a blood transfusion for the
Communist Party, allowing a fading
communist state to spring back into
action. Behind the manipulation of
globalization is the hidden purpose
of propping up the CCP through the
reallocation of wealth.
Globalization has been a process of
saving the CCP and giving it renewed
political legitimacy. While the Party
strengthened its socialist muscles
with capitalist nutrients, the West fell
into relative decline, further giving
the CCP confidence in its communist
totalitarianism and global ambitions.
Mainland China’s rise also greatly ex-
cited numerous socialists and mem-
bers of the Left worldwide.
While its economy has grown, the
PRC has intensified efforts to infil-
trate global economic organizations,
including the WTO, the International
Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the
U.N. Industrial Development Organi-
zation, and others. When assigned to
important positions in these organi-
zations, Chinese officials persuade
them to cooperate with the regime in
order to endorse the Party’s schemes
The Epoch Times is a media
organization dedicated to seek-
ing the truth through insightful
and independent journalism.
Standing outside of politi-
cal interests and the pursuit of
profit, our starting point and our
goal is to create a media for the
public benefit, to be truly respon-
sible to society.
We endeavor to educate read-
ers about today’s most impor-
tant topics, seeking to broaden
and uplift minds. We believe that
rational, balanced debate is key
for fostering a healthy democ-
racy and a compassionate
society.
As an independent media out-
let, we use our freedom to inves-
tigate issues overlooked—or
avoided—by other media outlets.
We seek to highlight solutions
and what’s good in society rather
than what divides us.
We report respectfully, compas-
sionately, and rigorously.
We stand against the destruc-
tion wrought by communism,
including the harm done to cul-
tures around the world.
We are inspired in this by our
own experience. The Epoch
Times was founded in 2000 to
bring honest and uncensored
news to people oppressed
by the lies and violence in
communist China.
We still believe journalism is a
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and defend its policies.
The CCP regime uses international
economic organizations to carry out
its own economic agenda and cor-
poratist model. If its ambitions aren’t
halted, the economic and political
consequences awaiting the world will
TODAY
be disastrous.
Get the
Notes independent news
7. Robert Atkinson, “Why the 2000s Were a
Lost Decade for American Manufacturing,”
you won’t find
IndustryWeek, March 14, 2013. anywhere else.
8. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “A Profile
of the Working Poor, 2016,” BLS Reports, Subscribe and get the
July 2018. insights only The Epoch Times
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A16 | OPINION
Who Actually Benefits From
the ‘Stop Asian Hate’ Movement?
ALEXANDER LIAO
The recent shooting of massage parlor
workers in Atlanta has sparked a string of
anti-Asian hate demonstrations through-
out the country.
In the United States, the issue of sys-
temic racial discrimination is complex.
There are several key points that stand
in the way of me being able to agree that
systemic racial oppression exists today in
the form of white Americans specifically
targeting people of color. More impor-
tantly, as someone who was raised in
communist China, I’m wary that politi-
cal entities are happy to wield radical
equality rhetoric for political capital.
First, hate crimes against Asian Ameri-
cans aren’t carried out by one predomi-
nant ethnic group. To put it bluntly, racial
hate crimes are not only carried out by
white people.
The latest U.S. Department of Justice
hate crime data was compiled in 2019.
The DOJ did report that the largest
motivator for hate crimes was racial and
ethnic bias, accounting for 57.6 percent
of all hate crimes.
It also detailed the racial identity of
offenders: 52.5 percent of all known hate
crime offenders were white, while 23.9
percent were black, with 14.6 percent of
offenders being of unknown racial ori-
gin, the report said.
Per 2019 U.S. census data, white people
accounted for 76.3 percent of America’s
population, while black people ac-
counted for 13.4 percent. Adjusted for
population, black Americans committed
proportionally more hate crimes than
white Americans. These racial trends
may be related to the socioeconomic
status and the educational background
of the perpetrators.
In America, it’s not one specific racial
group committing hate crimes spe-
cifically against another singular racial
group. It’s my opinion that most of the
crimes in the United States aren’t actu-
The Book You’ve Been
Waiting for...
“Extremely well “The Truth, as horrifying as it is,
researched and true.” shall set us free. This should be
on this country’s academia’s
list of required reading.”
HOW THE
SPECTER OF COMMUNISM
IS RULING OUR WORLD
The specter of communism did not
disappear with the disintegration of the
Communist Party in Eastern Europe
ORDER NOW!
EpochShop.com
People attend the “Peace Vigil for Victims of Asian Hate” at Union Square Park in New York on
March 19, 2021.
ally targeted at specific ethnic groups.
Sometimes shops in Chinatown are
robbed and the looter may not think too
much about the ethnicity of the shop
owner; his goal is just to get money, not to
commit a race-based hate crime.
Second, the discrimination that sys-
temically hurts Asian Americans comes
mainly from the Democratic Party.
Affirmative action seeks to balance
educational opportunities on the merit of
race. Students of Chinese and/or Jewish
heritage tend to have better school per-
formance due to their cultural emphasis
on the importance of education and the
family. However, these same cultural
groups that exhibit overwhelming rates
of high academic performance are forced
to compete for less academic opportu-
nity on the basis of “equality.”
This is a systemic legal process utilized
in America today, and the primary ben-
eficiaries are not whites but black and
Latino students.
NOW
BIGGER SIZE,
EASIER TO READ
FORMAT
CHUNG I HO/THE EPOCH TIMES
In February, the oldest U.S. Asian
American civil rights group denounced
critical race theory (CRT) as real racism.
The Chinese American Citizens Alli-
ance (CACA) of Greater New York said in
a statement: “CRT wants to drive Asians
out of the best schools. They believe
Asians account for too much of the stu-
dent population. CRT is today’s Chinese
Exclusion Act. CRT is the real hate crime
to deal with.
“CRT appears in our workplace under
the cover of implicit bias/sensitivity
training. It pretends to be a culturally/ra-
cially sensitive pedagogy and penetrates
our schools. Its courses include The New
York Times’ 1619 Project and the pro-
posed ethnic mathematics curriculum
in Seattle. Hate groups, with allies in
politics, the press, and education, pass
CRT as anti-racism and diversity, equal-
ity, and inclusion. But CRT is exactly the
opposite. From its very roots, CRT is rac-
ist, oppressive, and divisive.”
CRT is the belief that legal institutions
have no positive role for society and
are fundamentally racist because they
have been constructed by white people
to further their economic and political
interests at the expense of all people of
color. The theory has been harnessed as
a powerful political weapon by Demo-
crat progressives.
Actually, left-leaning media tends
to hesitate in highlighting harm and
hatred perpetrated against Asians. The
New York Times asserts that the ha-
tred against Asian Americans is due to
Trump’s use of the term “China virus” as
a name for COVID-19. This statement is
ridiculous because Asian people in the
United States know very well that the
generalized discrimination of Asians
in America existed long before Trump’s
election in 2016—although it was not
made a topical issue in the media.
I’ve noticed in the past that leftist me-
dia turned a blind eye to discrimination
against Asian Americans because Asians
on average don’t fall into the “colored
people are oppressed” narrative that has
been weaponized by the CRT movement.
Many leftists identify Asians as white
accomplices and as beneficiaries of the
oppressive society inherent in the United
States. They believe that Asians, as a
racial group, should be criticized.
Hatred Versus Discrimination
In the past, Asians would express their
Boycott the All-Star Game!
CONTINUED FROM A14
But whatever legal remedies Georgia may
or may not have, I do believe it is of urgent
concern that MLB pay a stiff price for its
temerity. We are in the midst of a liberty
crisis. We are in danger of being swamped
by the power manipulations of the
increasingly centralized and ever-more
ideologically homogeneous private sector.
An effective resistance will require
millions of individuals to push back.
Perhaps if fans generally—and would-be
viewers of the All-Star-Game specifi-
cally—tune baseball out, MLB and the
corporatocracy will understand that its
blatant political side-taking comes at a
significant cost. Not that I think that the
MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
opposition to discrimination, because in
the United States the term discrimina-
tion is a commonly used term. But the
position of this movement is “against the
expression of hatred,” not “discrimina-
tion.” Hatred and discrimination may be
similar terms, but they’re not the same.
In America, systemic discrimination
against Asians makes for a weak argu-
ment. Asian Americans tend to have
higher levels of education and higher
household incomes. Critical race theory
doesn’t make much sense here. The
vague term, Asian hate (Asian hate
crime?) became a substitute.
Over the past year or so, there’s been
more and more division within the
Democrat party. The extreme left in the
Democrat Party differs massively from
the Democrat centrists. They need a
landmark event, or landmark movement,
to bring their party’s supporters together.
But this campaign against “hate” will
surely come to an end with little progress.
It is a campaign with no specific goals.
Regardless of party, we all oppose
hatred. We oppose hatred via discrimi-
nation, and we all oppose hatred of any
human group, whether based on race,
gender, or income. How do they seek
to end instances of racial hate? What
constitutes racial hate? What policies can
end discrimination?
Amid calls to end the hate of Asians, I
want to point out that there are groups in
the United States who are actively calling
for the destruction of the United States
for what they call “imperialist crimes.”
They claim that communist China is
their true homeland and vigorously pro-
mote patriotism for the Chinese Com-
munist Party (CCP) in the United States.
Americans must be careful.
The virus of communism has begun
to break out in the United States. These
people are hidden in the Democrat Party,
taking form as the Democrat Party’s
radical leftists. Their promises are slo-
gans like equality and eliminating racial
hate, but these Marxist and communist
slogans have historically proven unreli-
able and dangerous.
In mainland China in the late 1940s,
the CCP fought a civil war to seize power
from the Chinese Nationalist Party. All
CCP media promoted “democracy” and
“freedom” and “equality.” The rhetoric
loudly demanded universal suffrage,
decried a “one-party dictatorship” and
opposed a political party controlling the
army. They vigorously praised Western
democracy, especially the United States.
A large number of Chinese people and in-
tellectuals, dissatisfied with the dynastic
rule of government, supported the CCP.
But once the Communist Party took
power in China, all talk of democracy
stopped, universal suffrage disappeared
from the dictionary, and demands for
nationalization of the military were si-
lenced. Two million Chinese intellectual
elites were sent to prison.
Just like the slogans propagated by the
CCP in the last century, we need to be
particularly vigilant about such move-
ments today that flaunt the banner of
“equality” as their political fuel.
Alexander Liao is a columnist and news
reporter for international affairs studies in
the United States, China, and Southeast
Asia. He has published numerous reports,
reviews, and video programs in newspa-
pers and Chinese financial magazines in
the United States and Hong Kong.
virtue signalers in charge of our money-
besotted private sector institutions will
much care. These days, Big Business, Big
Tech, and Big Entertainment are more
motivated by ideology and the thrill of
exercised power than, you know, profits.
But possibly, if the financial pain is
deep enough, if the fans’ fury is measur-
able and visceral, there is still a chance
to convince the corporate powers that
be to back away from politics. It’s a weak
reed, I know. People just want to have
fun. But for the life of me, I can’t think of
what else to do.
Award-winning author Wesley J. Smith
is chairman of the Discovery Institute’s
Center on Human Exceptionalism.
 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
Construction workers in New York City on Oct. 17, 2019.
From Child Care to COVID-19,
Rising Job Market Faces Obstacles
WASHINGTON—A surge in hiring in the
United States last month—916,000 added
jobs, the most since August—coincides
with growing confidence that a blistering
pace of job growth will continue as vac-
cinations increase and federal aid fuels
economic growth.
The most optimistic economists even pre-
dict that between now and year’s end, the
nation could produce as many as 10 million
more jobs and restore the labor market to
its pre-pandemic level.
Maybe so. Yet even in normal times, it
would be hard to regain all those jobs so
quickly. And these aren’t normal times.
Many people who’ve been thrown out of
the labor force remain fearful of the coro-
navirus and reluctant to take face-to-face
service jobs. Millions of women are still
caring for children attending school on-
line—and can’t take jobs because they can’t
find or afford child care.
Extended unemployment aid has meant
that some employers might have to pay
more to attract workers, which they may
feel unable to do. And some people will
need new skills before they can land a job
to replace the one they lost.
While few doubt that the trillions in federal
money flowing through the economy will
help accelerate hiring, the challenges are
sure to endure. Here’s a look at some of them:
Health Fears
After weeks of sharp declines, the number
of daily infections is creeping back up. Re-
cruiters say that trend is discouraging some
of the unemployed from taking jobs.
“People are afraid to come to work—there
is some of that,” said Tammy Browning,
president of KellyOCG, a staffing agency.
Eventually, ongoing vaccinations might
gradually reduce such fears, although some
Americans remain hesitant about the vac-
cines. Browning also suggested that em-
ployers will need to become more creative
about making workers feel comfortable on
the job. Many of her firm’s clients are manu-
facturing companies. On many hot factory
floors, their employees have to wear masks
and gloves for eight or more hours a day.
Companies should consider providing
more break times, Browning said, and al-
low workers to remove their masks outside
or in socially distant break rooms.
As a single mother, Jennifer Knapp of Au-
gusta, Maine, worries about what a return
to work would mean for her and her chil-
dren’s health. A year ago, Knapp, 44, lost
her job as a receptionist at a hotel and spa,
a place she described as a “hub of germs.”
“There is work out there if you want to put
yourself at risk,” she said.
But the open jobs she sees are typically
temporary and offer low pay. Right now,
Knapp is living off savings, child support
payments from her ex-husband, and un-
employment aid. Like many parents, she’d
like to find a work-from-home job, ideally
in her field of psychology and social work.
“The goal,” she said, “is to get back out there
and work, as long as my kids are doing OK.”
Need for Child Care
Nearly 2.5 million women lost jobs and
stopped looking for work during the pan-
demic. In most cases, experts say, it was
because so many children were suddenly
stuck at home, going to school online, and
their parents lacked available or afford-
able child care. Better child care options
or more flexible work schedules would be
needed to fully reverse that trend.
Some such change is becoming evident
as schools and child care centers reopen.
About 500,000 women returned to the la-
bor force in March and found jobs. The
improvement could continue in the com-
ing months: Jed Kolko, chief economist at
Indeed, the job listings website, says job
openings at child care centers are growing,
a sign that more of these centers are back
in business.
Recruiters also say flexible or hybrid work
schedules, along with benefits for part-time
workers, may be critical in attracting job
seekers, especially women. More compa-
nies could provide on-site child care.
“I think it is going to require some sys-
temic changes by employers,” said Karen
Fichuk, chief executive of Randstad North
America, a recruiting firm.
Extended Jobless Aid
Recruiters say the $300-a-week federal un-
employment benefit that was provided by
President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19
aid package, on top of regular state jobless
benefits that average about $340 a week,
might have made it harder for some em-
ployers to find workers. For some job seek-
ers, especially those fearful of the virus,
part-time or temporary jobs at restaurants
or stores that pay less than their unemploy-
ment aid aren’t attractive.
Economic research suggests that unem-
ployment benefits generally don’t deter
workers from taking jobs: A study by the
CHARLOTTE CUTHBERTSON/THE EPOCH TIMES
A sign saying
“Now Hiring!”
sits next to
a Walmart
distribution
center in
Columbus,
Ohio, on March
20, 2020.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY | A17
CATHERINE WEN/NTD
mally require the unemployed to document
their efforts to seek a job in order to remain
eligible. But during the pandemic, most
states have suspended this requirement.
That means there is less incentive to job hunt.
Browning said her firm is advising clients
to pay more and offer other benefits, in-
cluding bonuses, to offset the extended job-
less aid. Six months ago, a client raised the
hourly rate for a temporary position by $4
an hour. The proportion of jobs filled, she
said, jumped from 35 percent to 98 percent.
“You really have to encourage people to
come back to work,” Browning said, “and
that means pay at the level the market is
demanding.”
Need for New Skills
For some of the unemployed, their old job
appears gone for good. In some cases, their
former employers have learned to oper-
ate with fewer workers. Landing a job will
require finding work in a new occupation
or industry—perhaps only after obtaining
job training. This takes time.
Many economists expect more compa-
nies to help reskill workers themselves, par-
ticularly if they become desperate to hire.
Should the unemployment rate keep de-
clining, businesses might have little choice.
“When the economy is running hot, busi-
nesses begin to increase training and take
risks on someone they might not have hired
in the past,” said Ryan Sweet, an economist
at Moody’s Analytics.
Optimism Needed
For millions of Americans, the past year has
meant demoralizing job losses—sometimes
multiple layoffs—and fruitless job searches,
leading many to give up on finding work.
As an example, the number of people who
said they want a job but were too discour-
aged to look for one in the past month didn’t
change in March. That was true even though
JPMorgan Chase Institute found that last several job search websites report that job
year’s federal unemployment payment postings have risen sharply in recent weeks.
didn’t discourage recipients from working. For discouraged workers, Pollak said, it
But the new $300-a-week federal supple- can take time to regain confidence.
ment is set to last six months —longer than “There are many job seekers who haven’t
the previous payment did. yet realized how rapidly the conditions in
“It’s a much more attractive benefit now,” the labor market have changed,” she said.
said Julia Pollak, an economist at ZipRe- “Many searched for work earlier during
cruiter. “It would be foolish to think that the pandemic, when it was most difficult
wouldn’t have any effect.” and frustrating to do so, and are now dis-
Economists have calculated that roughly couraged.”
half the unemployed are earning more from
benefits than they did at their former jobs. By Christopher Rugaber
Another factor is that jobless benefits nor- From The Associated Press
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A18 | PUZZLES MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021

CROSSWORD CONSTRUCTED BY TOM HOUSTON

EPOCH TIMES STAFF 11. Kind of center 4NUMBERS CONSTRUCTED BY C. CHANG
AT 4NUMS.COM DAILY BRIDGE CLUB
12. European capital Use the four numbers in the corners, and Ed’s good defense
13. Absorbent the operands (+, - X, and ÷) to build an BY FRANK STEWART, TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY
equation to get the solution in the middle.
15. Aide There may be more than one “unique” so- ©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
lution but, there may also be “equivalent” When I watched today’s deal, North was the
16. Make or break solutions. For example: 6 + (7 X 3) +1 = 28 dreaded Grapefruit, our club member with a
19. Focal point and 1+ (7 X 3) + 6 = 28 sulfuric disposition and a tongue to match.
He berates his partners mercilessly.
23. Old autocrat West, not vulnerable, opened a weak
two hearts. Grapefruit doubled and raised
25. Family man South’s 2NT response to game. West led the
26. Quick coffee Abbr. king of hearts, winning, and continued with
the queen. Declarer played low again, and
27. Antarctic seabird West led a third heart.
28. Figure out East was Ed, our club’s expert. He
discarded ... the king of clubs! South took
29. Young hooter his ace, but he couldn’t set up his long clubs
without letting West get in. The result was
30. 10-kilogauss units down two.
32. Kisser
IGNORANCE
33. Bird-to-be “Stupidity is not a crime, partner, so
Hard 1 - 1 Solution you’re free to go,” Grapefruit growled.
34. Primed He would never have complimented Ed’s
35. Pregnant play, of course.
Since West’s bid suggested a six-card
36. Caper suit, South should win the second heart.
39. Platitude He goes to dummy and returns a club to
his queen. (If East plays the king, South
40. Like some kitchens ducks.) South can return to dummy,
lead a second club and let East’s king
41. Got up win. South has nine tricks.
42. Fork-tailed flier
DAILY QUESTION
44. “101” class, briefly You hold: k A K 8 3 j J 4
iA K 6 3 h9 4 2. Your partner opens one
46. Olympics chant heart, you respond one spade, he bids two
49. Capital in 2004-05’s Hard 2 - 1 Solution
clubs and you try two diamonds. Partner
then bids two hearts. What do you say?
Across Orange Revolution ANSWER: Expert opinion about
38. Alpine lake 74. “Unforgettable” partner’s holding would vary. My view
1. “You betcha” 39. Exam singer 51. Hot sandwich is that he has six hearts, four clubs
4. Bonnet or carriage 43. “Trilby” character 75. Fiery 52. Doctor’s charge and extra strength. With a minimum
6-4 hand such as 7 6, A K 9 6 5 2,
10. Plays the part 53. Tack on 5, K J 8 3, he would have rebid
45. Cause an oversupply 76. Peccadilloes
14. Department 54. Highly seasoned stew two hearts. Slam is possible. Bid
16. The phenomenon of 47. Badger’s burrow 77. Rime five hearts. Partner may hold 7 6,
48. Dungeonlike 78. Honor 55. Pupil surrounder A K 10 9 6 3, 4, A K J 5.
forming chemical bonds West dealer
17. What icicles do 50. An American in 79. Posed 56. Veteran N-S vulnerable
18. Clapboard Paris? 60. Spine-tingling
NORTH
20. “Blue II” painter Joan 51. Confusion Down 61. Lees kA K 8 3
1. Whitman’s “barbaric” jJ 4
21. Stock holder? 53. Degrade 62. ’60s protest symbols iA K 6 3
Easy 1 - 2 Solutions
22. Skilled craftsman sound 63. IX - VI h9 4 2
24. “Chicago” lyricist 57. “It’s A Wonderful 2. Fertilizer ingredient
Life” star 3. Shooter’s ammo 65. Percussion instru- WEST EAST
25. Disabled ships in kJ 6 kQ 10 5 2
battle during the Age of 58. Conclusion 4. “I Should ___,” 1944 ment jK Q 10 9 6 2 j7 5
i8 5 iQ J 10 9 2
Sail 59. Slow pacifist? song 66. Speaker’s spot hJ 10 8 hK 5
28. Young fellow 62. Coal holder 5. Priestly garb 67. “Elbow,” in Latin
SOUTH
30. Weapon of the U.S. 64. Trick-or-___ (kid on 6. Author Tolstoy 68. Attention-getter k9 7 4
Army’s Armor Branch 7. “Baptist” opener jA 8 3
Halloween) 71. Fire ___ i7 4
31. Test 8. Vamoose hA Q 7 6 3
32. Key frosting ingredi- 65. Wizened 9. “Two heads are better 72. ___ Dee River
ent 69. All aflutter than one” monster? 73. “M.S. Found in a West North East South
2j Dbl Pass 2 NT
37. Waste beer 70. Second opinions 10. Acknowledges Bottle” writer Easy 2 - 2 Solutions Pass 3 NT All Pass

WORDSEARCH CONSTRUCTED BY TOM HOUSTON

EPOCH TIMES STAFF SUPER KAKURO CONSTRUCTED
BY EPOCH TIMES STAFF

Help with Today’s Crossword Puzzle? Kakuro puzzles are like crosswords that use numbers instead of words. The goal is to fill the blank squares associated with a clue (called a “run”) with the numbers 1-9
so that the numbers add up to the corresponding clues. Like Sudoku, digits in a run cannot repeat. When the grid is filled, the puzzle is complete.

ABASE EAT IN SPONGY

ADMITS EERIE STAGER
ANTIC ESTEEM STOOD
AREOLA GRAVID SVENGALI
ARTISAN HYDRA TESLAS
ASSAY IGNEOUS TIRANA
ATTACH INTRO TREATER
ATTENDANT OWLET TRITENESS
BURGOO PASTURE ULLAGES
CALASH READY VALENCY
CRISIS SATURATE VISITOR
DISMASTING SCRAM WEATHERBOARD
DREGS SKUAS
DRIED UP SOLVE

SOLUTIONS
CROSSWORD SUPER KAKURO 4NUMBERS

HARD 1

HARD 2

EASY 1

EASY 2
 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021 PUZZLES | A19
SUDOKU CONSTRUCTED
BY KANNAN SANKARAN SUPERSUDOKU CONSTRUCTED
BY KANNAN SANKARAN

Fill in the boxes using numbers between 1 and 9 so that each column, each Fill in the boxes using numbers from 0 to 9 and letters from A to F so that each column, each row, and
row, and each 3x3 square contain all nine numbers only once. each 4x4 square contain all ten numbers and six letters only once.
Hard

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CRYPTIC QUOTE
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
17

EPOCH DOKU CONSTRUCTED

BY EPOCH TIMES STAFF

KAKURO CONSTRUCTED
BY EPOCH TIMES STAFF JUMBLE BY DAVID L. HOYT
& JEFF KNUREK

Kakuro puzzles are like crosswords that use numbers instead of words. The goal THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME
is to fill the blank squares associated with a clue (called a “run”) with the numbers By David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek
1-9 so that the numbers add up to the corresponding clues. Like Sudoku, digits Unscramble these Jumbles,
in a run cannot repeat. When the grid is filled, the puzzle is complete. one letter to each square,
Get the free JUST JUMBLE app • Follow us on Twitter @PlayJumble

to form four ordinary words.

Easy
ZLAAP
EPOCH ESCAPE MAZE
XCTIO

GFIREU

FUNIFM
Now arrange the circled letters
©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC to form the surprise answer, as
All Rights Reserved. suggested by the above cartoon.

Print the answer here:

WORK SPACE

SOLUTIONS
SUPERSUDOKU SUDOKU: EASY JUMBLE EASY KAKURO
PIGMENT Shut-eye
to match the hog’s —
the hog and made sure
The artist was painting
Answers:

MUFFIN
FIGURE
TOXIC
SUDOKU: HARD EPOCH DOKU
PLAZA
Jumbles:

CRYPTIC QUOTE
table and you can give input.
you sit at the bargaining
influence on the debate when
You can much better have an
Contact the Puzzle Master @: Feedback@EpochTimes.com
A20 | MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021

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TRUTH AND TRADITION


VISION
How to Protect Your Vision
These seven tips can help you keep your
eyes healthy and working well.
See B2
WELL-BEING |DIET |FITNESS
What We
Can Learn
From the
African
Hadza
Tribe
This traditional
people live a
lifestyle rooted
in a deep
connection to the
natural world
JOSEPH MERCOLA
I
n this interview, Dr. Paul Saladino,
author of “The Carnivore Code”—a
book on nose-to-tail animal-based
eating—reviews what it means to
be healthy at the most foundational
level and shares his findings from a
recent trip to Africa where he visited the
Hadza tribe, who are among the best
still-living representations of the way
humans have lived for tens of thousands
of years.
Like the !Kung tribe in Botswana, the
Hadza live a hunter-gatherer life amidst
the encroachment of modernized society.
“I see the Hadza as a time machine.
They’re like a time capsule,” Saladino
says. “They do not suffer chronic disease
like we do in Western society, and that
alone makes them infinitely fascinating.
They do not suffer cancers like we suffer
cancers.
“They do not suffer autoimmune
disease, which is a huge spectrum of dis-
ease, and they do not suffer depression,
mental illness, skin issues. They do not
suffer dementia anywhere near the rates
that we do. They age with grace. This is
called squaring of the morbidity curve.
“If you look at a graph of their vitality
across the lifespan, it is essentially flat
and then drops off very quickly at the
end. It’s like a square. They lose their
vitality within the last few weeks of life,
but until they’re 70 or 80 years old, they
are vital individuals.”
If we look at Western society, the mor-
bidity curve has a very different look.
MINDSET MATTERS
How to Quiet the Voice in Your Head
Reclaim your mind from your inner narrator and experience life directly
NANCY COLIER
Do you have a little voice inside
your head that’s constantly run-
ning a play-by-play of your life?
Does it unceasingly package your
life, verbally preparing your expe-
rience for transmission to another
unidentified listener?
I just went on an eight-day silent
retreat, and apparently, my in-
ner narrator didn’t get the memo
FIZKES/SHUTTERSTOCK
MIND & BODY
The Hadza
fill their days with
things they need—
and love—to do.
Honey collected from a bee
colony inside a baobab tree is
a favorite food.
that it was time to be silent. For
the first five days, the voice didn’t
stop talking, not even to catch its
imaginary breath. With obsessive
precision, it explained to me what I
was doing, how I had transformed,
and what spiritual lessons I had
learned. Over and over, my inner
narrator repeated my experience
to me, prepared it for sharing, and
made sure I had everything men-
tally wrapped up.
PHOTOGRAPHEE.EU/SHUTTERSTOCK
It’s like a ramp that steadily declines. In
the Western world, people lose vitality
consistently throughout life. This doesn’t
happen in native hunter-gatherer societ-
ies, primarily because they don’t suffer
from the debilitation of chronic disease.
The Hadza Diet
Saladino primarily wanted to find out
how the Hadza eat, what foods they
prioritize, and how it affects their health.
Other investigators have analyzed the
Hadza diet, but he wanted to confirm it
for himself. For example, one 2009 study
found the Hadza ate a lot of meat, tubers,
berries, and fruit and honey from the
baobab tree. According to this paper, the
Hadza don’t eat vegetables.
The study in question also asked the
Hadza to rank how much they liked each
food. Honey was ranked the highest,
followed by meat (primarily the eland—
a very large type of antelope—baboon,
and bush pig), baobab fruit, and berries.
It’s an odd thing: As we’re
having an experience,
the voice in our head
is simultaneously de-
scribing, explaining,
and commentating
on it. Usually, it even
provides a summary of the
event and what came before,
during, and after its unfolding.
Continued on B7
MINDSET MATTERS
Narcissism Comes From
Insecurity
Narcissism is not driven by an inflated sense of self, but
rather the opposite, say researchers
See B8
MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021 B1
ALL PHOTOS BY SHUTTERSTOCK
Tubers were their least favorite food.
Saladino’s investigation supported these
basic preferences as well.
The Hadza Lifestyle
When asked why they choose to main-
tain their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, being
well aware of modern civilization all
around them and other tribes that have
chosen to farm and keep herds of cattle
and goats, the Hadzi replied: “We want to
be free. We like to eat meat. We want to
be able to hunt and we like this lifestyle.”
Another question that arose was what
makes the Hadza happy? Interestingly,
this is more or less a non-issue. “Happi-
ness” is their default state of mind.
“That is their default mode when they
are in nature doing what humans have
always done,” Saladino says. “This is so
interesting to me. Here’s this group of
hunter-gatherers. They live in the bush.
Continued on B3
The hardest voice
to tune out is the
one in our head.
PATHDOC/SHUTTERSTOCK
B2
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and through content that is
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TRUTH AND TRADITION
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The Epoch Times for the work
you are doing, especially with
regard to keeping the menace of
the communist threat in front of us.
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former deputy assistant to the president
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newspaper for factual and
unbiased news coverage.
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and talk show host
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for your reporting of the news.
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U.S. representative for Arizona
Things You Can Do to
Protect Your Vision
These 7 tips can help you keep your
eyes healthy and working well
LYNN JAFFEE
Your eyes work really hard. They stare
at screens most of the day, keep you
focused on the highway when you’re
driving, and make out what’s on the
menu in a darkened restaurant. While
you may not think about it often, good
vision and eye health contribute to the
quality of your life.
The reality is that when it comes to
your eyesight, there are things that
you just can’t control. For example,
as you age, the fine print gets blurrier
and the magnification on your cheat-
ers gets larger. That said, there are
also a number of habits that you can
cultivate to support the health of your
eyes and help to prevent or slow the
progression of eye diseases. Here are
some of the ways that you can help
keep your eyes as healthy as possible:
1. Cultivate habits that are kind to
your eyes. Long hours of reading or
in front of a screen can cause fatigue
and weaken your vision. When you’re
reading for long periods, take frequent
breaks every hour or so. Also, make
sure you have enough light to avoid
eye strain, especially when you’re
reading.
2. Protect your eyes. Exposure to
strong lights, sunlight, and UV rays
can damage your eyes over time. Use
sunglasses that block the sun’s UV
rays, wear eye protection when you’re
engaged in sports, and use protective
goggles when you’re doing home
projects or working with power tools.
If you spend most of your days in front
of a screen, you can get computer
glasses that block blue light. They help
cut the glare, increase visual contrast,
and enhance the images on the screen.
Many computer screens also have an
option to turn down the blue light,
which can also help you sleep better.
3. Get regular eye exams. If you’re
under 40, your eyes should be
checked every two to four years; over
40, every two years. If you have an
eye condition or are noticing vision
changes, have your eyes examined
yearly. Frequent exams translate into
detecting problems early.
4. Eat to nourish your eyes.
Scientists have found that leafy greens
and yellow vegetables can improve
the health of your eyes and decrease
your risk for macular degeneration
and cataracts. These vegetables are
high in lutein, a vitamin related to
vitamin A. Other foods that are good
for your eyes include nuts, beans,
citrus fruit, oily fish, and eggs. If you
Screens can be hard on our eyes but you can get some protection by using computer
glasses that block blue light, cut the glare, and increase visual contrast.
MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
don’t think you’re getting enough of
these foods, you can also supplement
with vitamins formulated specifically
for eye health.
5. Use reading glasses if you need
them. Age-related loss of reading
vision is called presbyopia and is
extremely common in people over age
40. Reading glasses (lovingly called
cheaters) can help for close-up work
because they magnify the fine print. If
you need reading glasses, make sure
you have the right level for your eyes.
Going up to a stronger level doesn’t
make your eyes any weaker, but not
using a strong enough magnification
can contribute to eye strain.
Managing your
stress not only
improves your
health, but
also supports
the health of
your eyes.
6. Keep your stress in check.
Scientists have found that unman-
aged stress weakens your immune
system and accelerates aging. Fur-
thermore, high levels of stress can
raise your blood pressure, all of which
put an additional strain on your eyes.
The bottom line is that doing whatever
it takes—meditation, yoga, or garden-
ing—to relieve your stress not only
improves your health, but also sup-
ports the health of your eyes.
7. Make sure you’re getting
enough sleep. Your body heals and
regenerates itself when you sleep,
and your eyes are no exception.
There’s nothing worse than that gritty,
burning feeling in your eyes when you
haven’t gotten enough rest.
Typically, your vision isn’t on your
radar unless you begin to have prob-
lems with your eyes. A little preven-
tative care, however, can go a long
way in keeping eye issues at bay. By
taking these few steps, you can safe-
guard your vision and keep your eyes
healthy for years to come.
Lynn Jaffee is a licensed acupuncturist
and the author of “Simple Steps: The
Chinese Way to Better Health.” This
article was originally published on
AcupunctureTwinCities.com
FIZKES/SHUTTERSTOCK
 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
What We Can Learn From the
African Hadza Tribe
This traditional
people live a lifestyle
rooted in a deep
connection to the
natural world
Continued from B1
They do not sleep on beds. They sleep on
the ground in these thatched huts that
they build in a day. They’re nomadic.
“They have little camps. ... The camp
that we went to was about 40 to 50 men
and women with children, and they
moved the camp three or four times a
year. They have three or four camps that
they’ve established, and they know spots
in the Lake Eyasi region. Some of them
are better for the rainy season, some of
them are better for the dry season, and
so the whole camp will move throughout
the year at different times.
“They have fires for men and fires for
the women. They live under rock shelters.
They sleep in the auspices of rocks and
they are profoundly healthy individuals.
They love their life because every day
they get to go play. For them, play and
fun is hunting. The next day, we got to
see this because we went on a hunt with
them. It was incredible. It was so joyous
and so simple.”
The Importance of Organ Meats
Saladino recounts the hunt, noting how
the organ meats were consumed in the
field. After hunting down a baboon, the
men created a fire to burn off the hair,
after which the animal was gutted. In-
testines were given to the hunting dogs,
while all the other organs—heart, liver,
lungs, spleen, kidneys, and pancreas—
were cooked on the open fire and shared
among the hunting party. Nothing is
wasted, not even the bones, which are
broken to extract the marrow.
They also eat the connective tissue,
which is high in collagen, and the skin.
The internal organs, which are the most
highly prized, are called epeme, and
according to the local lore, the epeme
must be shared among all the men of
the tribe. If a hunter chooses not to, bad
things will happen to them. The
hunter responsible for the
kill is rewarded with the
most valuable organs,
however, such as
the brain, which
Saladino says was
“delicious.”
While they
might not under-
stand individual
nutrients, they
clearly know that if
you eat these organs,
you will be more vital.
“That’s why I think it’s
so important for humans
to get back to eating nose to
tail, to eating those organs,”
Saladino says. Interestingly, The Hadza plant wooden fact, when you go into a gro-
while the Hadza diet has pegs in the trunks of
been described as high in baobab trees to help
fiber, Saladino disagrees. them climb in search of two sort of shelves of oil.
The tubers they collect are hives filled with one of
extremely fibrous. So much their favorite treats—
honey.
so, you can’t actually swallow
them. You have to chew them
and spit out the fibers, so in reality, their
diet is low to moderate (at best) in fiber.
“The other thing I want to mention
about eating the tubers was that there
was no bathroom to wash my hands in.
Nor did I want to because I’m very inter-
ested in soil-based organisms and the
interaction of our microbiome with our
environment. Everyone believes that the
Hadza have a healthy, diverse microbi-
ome because they eat a high-fiber diet.
“Well, No. 1, they don’t eat a high-fiber
diet. No. 2, they probably have a healthy,
diverse microbiome because they live
in nature and they are inevitably taking
inputs, information from nature, in the
form of dirt and soil-based organisms.
“This is something that I’ve always
expected and it’s a complete paradigm
shift.”
Saladino says eating fiber doesn’t
increase the diversity of the microbiome.
What does, however, is eating dirt.
“There was definitely dirt on my hands
and my fingers, and dirt on this tuber as
I’m holding it in my mouth. The Hadza
are not a dirty people though.
“They do not smell. They don’t use
deodorant. They don’t have bad breath.
I was really close to them a lot of the
time in the bush hunting. They don’t
have body odor. Yet they don’t bathe that
regularly. We were there for a week and
they didn’t bathe.”
Their microbiome is most likely the
reason for their lack of body odor, as
malodorous armpits are due to specific
axillary bacteria. The Hadza microbiome
has previously been studied in some
detail, showing they have higher levels of
microbial richness and biodiversity than
Western urban controls.
The Hadza are also unique in that they
have an absence of Bifidobacterium, a
bacteria that takes an important place in
the microbiome of most people. Differ-
ences in microbial composition between
the sexes have also been found, which
is probably a reflection of the division of
labor between the sexes.
Fiber Isn’t a Cure-All
Saladino also believes the Hadza diet
challenges the importance of eat-
ing fiber. He cites two recent research
papers, one of which compared Tanza-
nian urbanites with more rural dwell-
ers, finding that urbanites had higher
rrates of inflammation. In the
se
second, companion paper,
tthe authors blamed the
h
higher inflammation in
u
urbanites on a fiber-
p
poor Western diet.
S
Saladino disagrees
w these conclu-
with
sions, saying:
“What they’re
trying to say is that
the urban people
in Tanzania are eat-
ing more saturated
fat and less fiber and
that is what fuels their
inflammatory phenotype.
What I observed was com-
pletely different than that. In
cery store in urban Tanzania,
there are two aisles, there’s
“One of them is a huge shelf
of vegetable oil. They call it
flower oil and safflower oil,
and many of the vegetable
oils that we saw were actually expired
and they’re in plastic. Right next to that
is a whole shelf of beef fat, beef tallow.
“The beef tallow is actually cheaper
than the vegetable oil, but what do
people buy in the cities? They buy seed
oils. So, my observation is that in the
urban cities, people are probably eating
more seed oils and less saturated fat than
the rural settings.”
Surprising Health Benefits
of Raw Honey
Saladino also recounts how the Hadza
collect honey made by stingless bees
that burrow into the baobab tree. It’s a
common belief that honey is no different
than sugar, but Saladino is starting to
reconsider this notion.
That is primarily because of the pres-
ence of nitric oxide metabolites in raw
honey. These metabolites help the body
create nitric oxide, a molecule critical to
our cardiovascular system. It regulates
blood pressure and keeps blood vessels
healthy. Among its many jobs, it helps
We all, at some
level, benefit from
a true connection to
nature.
There is almost
nothing Hadza
men enjoy more or
prefer doing than
hunting.
blood vessels relax and widen.
Saladino cites a 2003 paper, “The Iden-
tification of Nitric Oxide Metabolites in
Various Honeys,” in which they did an
intravenous injection of diluted honey
into sheep, showing it increased plasma
and urinary nitric oxide metabolite con-
centrations.
Honey has also been shown to increase
nitric oxide and total nitrite concentra-
tions in humans, Saladino says. Heating
decreases the nitric oxide metabolites in
the honey, though, so for this benefit, you
wouldn’t want to add it to boiling liquids.
“Honey is often thought to be the same
as sucrose because honey does contain
glucose and fructose,” he said.
But the body doesn’t treat honey the
way it treats those sugars.
“It’s fascinating to me that these whole
foods are an informational package that
our body perceives differently than a
processed sucrose/high fructose corn
syrup. Actually, in these studies, honey
performed differently than sucrose. Hon-
ey performed differently than dextrose.”
Saladino found a research paper that
suggested darker honey had more nitric
oxide, and that connected back to his
experience with the Hazda people.
“I can tell you the honey I ate in Tan-
zania was some of the most iridescent,
dark, richly colored honey I’ve ever had
in my life.
“I just want to make this point that
reductionist thinking in nutrition doesn’t
serve us, and I would posit that honey is
nothing like sucrose.”
The take-home message here is that,
provided you’re metabolically healthy,
you can safely include honey in your diet.
It’s important to realize, though, that if
you are insulin resistant or have diabe-
tes, all forms of sugar need to be cut back
until you’ve successfully reversed these
conditions.
Health and Happiness
Are Within Your Reach
But the health and happiness of the
Hazda people aren’t primarily about diet,
but rather lifestyle, notes Saladino.
“I spent a week with the Hadza. I got to
hunt for berries with them and dig tubers
with the women and we drank the water
out of the baobab tree. I got to see all of
these parts of their life. They are always
in nature, they’re always in the sun.
They’re always having low-level activity
with spurts of sprinting.
“They follow the circadian rhythms of
the sun, which was one of the most joy-
ous things.”
“This is what humans need. As I said,
the Hadza’s default state is happiness.”
The key message is that there’s intrinsic
B3
ALL PHOTOS BY SHUTTERSTOCK
happiness that results spontaneously
from engaging in certain types of behav-
iors, and topping that list is the regular
immersion in the natural world.
“I fear that in Western society, humans
have been placed into a little bit of a zoo,”
Saladino says. “We’ve been given these
hamster wheels to run on, which essen-
tially are treadmills at gyms and we’ve
been given this processed, synthetic
food, these rat pellets that are dropped
into our cage every once in a while. It’s
no wonder that we’re just not happy.
“You know, I’m not a zoologist, but I
have heard that when animals are placed
in cages in the zoo, they become fat and
unhealthy and they develop chronic
diseases that they don’t get in the wild.
I’ve always found that to be a fascinating
parallel with humans because I think
we’re exactly the same.
There’s intrinsic happiness
that results spontaneously
from engaging in certain
behaviors, and topping
that list is regular
immersion in the natural
world.
“The difference for us is that the door
to the cage is open. We have only to open
the latch and walk through. We can get
back to these things. You can get more
sunlight. You can avoid blue light devic-
es. You can avoid EMFs. You can eat the
diet your ancestors ate and walk out of
the zoo and find a richer life. Remember,
the door is open. You’ve just got to walk
through it.”
Dr. Joseph Mercola is the founder of Mer-
cola.com. An osteopathic physician, best-
selling author, and recipient of multiple
awards in the field of natural health, his
primary vision is to change the modern
health paradigm by providing people
with a valuable resource to help them take
control of their health. This article was
originally published on Mercola.com
MORE INFORMATION
To learn more about Saladino
and his work, check out his
website, HeartAndSoil.co (not
.com). There, you will find his
blog, podcast, social media links,
and much more.
B4 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021

RUSLAN HUZAU/SHUTTERSTOCK HEIDI DE MARCO/CALIFORNIA HEALTHLINE

Rocio Alvarado watches over daughter Rhianna to make sure

she takes the correct steps to change her father’s trach tube,
which must be done once a month.
HEIDI DE MARCO/CALIFORNIA HEALTHLINE

Brian can
barely speak
since his tra-
cheostomy.
“When it’s just
me and Rhi-
anna, I have to
ask Rhianna to
be my voice,”
Brian said.

Role Reversal: COVID Increases Ranks

of Child Caregivers
Children are being tasked with adult responsibilities as pandemic measures change family life

HEIDI DE MARCO ill or addicted parents. moments when I’m a little frustrated, she no outlet,” she said. “Now they’re suddenly

O
n a recent Thursday afternoon,
Rhianna Alvarado struggled
to don her protective gloves,
which were too big for her pe-
tite hands.
With her mom coaching her every move,
she edged close to her father and gently
removed the plastic tube from his throat
that allows him to breathe. She then cau-
tiously inserted a new one.
“What’s next?” asked her mom, Rocio
Alvarado, 43.
“I know, I know,” replied Rhianna, her
eyes constantly searching for her mom’s
approval.
Rhianna is only 13. When she finished
the delicate task of changing her father’s
tracheostomy tube, usually performed  Kaylin and her mother in Tal-
only by adults, she went back into her room
to doodle on her sketch pad and play with
her cat.
Rhianna’s father, Brian Alvarado, is an
Iraq War veteran and a neck and throat
cancer survivor.
Like most kids, Rhianna has been stuck
at home during the COVID-19 pandemic
and attends school online. But unlike
most other eighth-graders, Rhianna is a
caregiver, tending to her dad between her
virtual classes.
Rhianna is among more than 3 mil-
lion children and teens who help an ill
or disabled family member, according
to Caregiving in the U.S. 2020, a national
survey published by the National Alli-
ance for Caregiving and AARP. The sur-
vey also found that Hispanic and African
American children are twice as likely to be
youth caregivers as non-Hispanic white
children.
Carol Levine, a senior fellow at the United
Hospital Fund, a nonprofit that focuses on
improving health care in New York, said
the pandemic, combined with the wors-
ening opioid epidemic, has increased the
number of youth caregivers because more
children are homebound and must care for
The pandemic has also made caregiving may pick up on it and be like ‘Mommy, let [providing] 24/7 care and there was abso-
harder for them, since many can no longer me handle this.’” lutely no break.”
escape to school during the day. Rhianna’s dad, Brian, 40, never smoked Adult and youth caregivers often suffer
“In school, they have their peers, they and was healthy before joining the Ma- from anxiety, depression, and isolation,
have activities,” Levine said. “Because of rine Corps. He believes he got sick from but there is little data on how caregiving
the contagion, they aren’t allowed to do inhaling smoke from burn pits during the affects young people over the long-term,
the things they might normally do, so of Iraq War. Kavanaugh said.
course there is additional stress.” He was diagnosed with squamous cell
Levine was an author of a national sur- carcinoma of the neck and throat in 2007.
vey in 2005 that found there were about He also has an inflammatory disease that
400,000 youth caregivers between ages causes muscle weakness and a rash, PTSD, Kaylin Jean-Louis was
8 and 11. The survey hasn’t been updat- and hyperthyroidism from chemotherapy
ed, she said, but that number has likely and radiation. 10 when she started
grown. Rhianna’s mom is Brian’s primary care- doing little things to care
Kaylin Jean-Louis was 10 when she start- giver, but Rhianna helps her change her
ed doing little things to care for her grand- dad’s trach tube and feed him through a for her grandmother and
mother and great-grandmother, who have feeding tube in his abdomen.
Alzheimer’s disease and live with “I’m still learning how to do it,” great-grandmother, who
Rhianna said. “I get nervous,  have Alzheimer’s disease.
lahassee, Florida. though.”
Now 15, Kaylin has as- The two look after him on
sumed a larger caregiving and off all day. “Our care Connie Siskowski, founder of the Amer-
role. Every afternoon after for him doesn’t end,” Ro- ican Association of Caregiving Youth,
her online classes end, the cio said. helped care for her grandfather as a child.
high school sophomore Rhianna is quiet and “I was not prepared,” she said. “It was
gives the women their reserved. She has autism, traumatic.”
medicine, and helps them struggles with communica- Her Florida-based group connects young 
use the bathroom, dress, and tion, and has trouble sleep- caregivers and their families with health
take showers. SM
OL A CK
ing. She has been talking to a care, education, and community resourc-
W/SHU T TERS TO
“Sometimes, they can act out and therapist once a week. es. The goal is to identify problems such as
it can be challenging,” she said. The hard- The trach has had the biggest impact on stress or isolation among the children, and
est thing, she said, is that her grandmother Rhianna, because Brian doesn’t join them address these issues so they won’t harm the
can no longer remember Kaylin’s name. for meals anymore. children as adults, Siskowski said.
COVID has added another level of stress “I feel sad that he can’t eat anything,” But long-term care experts said caregiv-
to an already complex situation, Kaylin she said. ing can also enrich a young person’s life.
said, because she can’t decompress outside Despite the growing number of youth “It can help kids develop a sense of re-
the house. caregivers, they have little support. sponsibility, empathy, and confidence,”
“Being around them so much, there has “If you look at all state and national care- Levine said. “The problem comes when
been a little tension,” Kaylin acknowl- giving programs and respite funding, they their schoolwork, their friendships, their
edged. She uses art to cope. “I like to all begin at the age of 18,” said Melinda lives as a child are so affected by caregiv-
paint,” she said. “I find it very relaxing and Kavanaugh, an associate professor of so- ing that they can’t develop in those other
calming.” cial work at the University of Wisconsin- important ways.”
Kaylin’s mother, Priscilla Jean-Louis, Milwaukee.
got COVID last month and had to rely on Kavanaugh is researching Alzheimer’s Heidi de Marco is a reporter and producer
Kaylin to care for the elder women while and  caregiving in Latino and African for California Healthline. This article was
she recovered. American communities in Milwaukee. produced by Kaiser Health News, which
“She isn’t forced to do it, but she helps me “We had a number of kids who were publishes California Healthline, a service
a great deal,” Priscilla said. “If there are much more stressed out because they had of the California Health Care Foundation.

Feeling Tired? It Might Not Be What You Think

MAT LECOMPTE
It’s easy to feel tired these days. Be-
tween the pandemic and getting a
bit older, it might be hard to get up
and go the way you used to.
But there can be a fine line be-
tween fatigue and depression.
Sleep shortens with age. Research
also suggests the pandemic has
made it harder to sleep. Sleep lost
to the pandemic, however, may be
a result of anxiety.
Depression can be more common
as people age, yet it may be less
recognizable. Many older adults
believe symptoms are related to
something else, or “natural” aging,
or fail to believe that it is mental
health bogging them down.
Those who do acknowledge their
depression are more likely to be-
lieve they will just “snap out of it.”
But things can spiral rather
quickly as those feelings become
normalized. Without action, de-
pression can pose threats to both
physical and mental health.
How can you recognize if you’re
experiencing depression and not
just regular fatigue from a lack of
sleep? Here are some of the signs:
J You no longer get enjoyment from
your favorite activities
J Persistent sadness, or an “empty”
mood
J Increased boredom/apathy
Depression J Lost energy
can be more J Regular fatigue
J Irritability
common as J Trouble concentrating
J Unintentional weight gain/loss
people age, yet
it may be less You may be able to manage or do
away with symptoms on your own.
recognizable. Some individuals can make small
changes to their lives—like creating
a schedule, reaching out to friends
or family, adopting a hobby, or get-
ting involved in a group—and no-
tice symptoms disappear.
Each of the above can give life
meaning and joy.
Other things you can try are
mindfulness meditation or talk-
ing to an online psychotherapist.
There are a variety of resources
to help you get through this and
restore hope and energy to your life.
It’s also particularly important
to listen to the people who know
you best because they might be
able to recognize changes in your
behavior. If they suggest you seem
off, take a look at your mental
health.
Mat Lecompte is a freelance health
and wellness journalist. This
article was first published on Bel
Marra Health.
 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
The Exercise Pill
How exercise keeps your brain healthy and
protects it against depression and anxiety
ARASH JAVANBAKHT
As with many other physicians, recom-
mending physical activity to patients was
just a doctor chore for me—until a few
years ago. That’s because I myself was not
very active. Over the years, as I picked up
boxing and became more active, I got first-
hand experience of the positive impacts on
my mind. I also started researching the ef-
fects of dance and movement therapies on
trauma and anxiety in refugee children,
and learned a lot more about the neuro-
biology of exercise.
I am a psychiatrist and neuroscientist re-
searching the neurobiology of anxiety and
how our treatment interventions change
the brain. I’ve begun to think of prescrib-
ing exercise as telling patients to take their
“exercise pills.” Now knowing the impor-
tance of exercising, almost all my patients
commit to some level of exercise, and I
have seen how it benefits several areas of
their life and livelihood.
We all have heard details on how exercise
improves musculoskeletal, cardiovascu-
lar, metabolic, and other aspects of health.
What you may not know is how this hap-
pens within the brain.
Brain Biology and Growth
Working out regularly really does change
the brain biology, and it is not just “go walk
and you will just feel better.” Regular ex-
ercise, especially cardio, does change the
brain. Contrary to what some may think,
the brain is a very plastic organ. Not only
are new neuronal connections formed ev-
ery day, but also new cells are generated in
important areas of the brain. One key area
is the hippocampus, which is involved
in learning and memory and regulating
negative emotions.
A molecule called brain-derived neu-
rotrophic factor helps the brain produce
neurons, or brain cells. A variety of aero-
bic and high-intensity interval training
exercises significantly increase BDNF
levels. There’s evidence from animal re-
search that these changes are at epigen-
etic level, which means these behaviors
affect how genes are expressed, leading
to changes in the neuronal connections
and function.
Moderate exercise also seems to have an-
ti-inflammatory effects, regulating the
immune system and excessive inflam-
mation. This is important given the new
insight neuroscience is gaining into the
potential role of inflammation in anxiety
and depression.
Finally, there’s evidence for the positive
effects of exercise on neurotransmitters—
brain chemicals that send signals between
neurons—dopamine and endorphins.
Both of these are involved in positive mood
and motivation.
Exercise Improves
Clinical Symptoms
of Anxiety and Depression
Researchers have also examined the ef-
fects of exercise on measurable brain
function and symptoms of depression
and anxiety. Exercise improves memory
function, cognitive performance, and ac-
ademic achievement. Studies also suggest
that regular exercise has a moderate effect
on depressive symptoms comparable to
psychotherapy. For anxiety disorders, this
effect is mild to moderate in reducing
anxiety symptoms. In a study I conducted
with others among refugee children, we
found a reduction in symptoms of anxiety
and PTSD among children who attended
eight to 12 weeks of dance and movement
therapies.
Exercise could even potentially de-
sensitize people to physical symptoms
of anxiety. That is because of the simi-
larity between bodily effects of exercise,
specifically high-intensity exercise, and
those of anxiety, including shortness of
breath, heart palpitation, and chest tight-
ness. Also, by reducing baseline heart
rate, exercise might lead to signaling
of a calmer internal physical environ-
ment to the brain.
It’s important to note that the majority
of studies examined the effects of exer-
cise in isolation and not in combination
with other effective treatments of clinical
anxiety and depression, such as psycho-
therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy,
and medication. For the same reason, I
am not suggesting exercise as a replace-
ment for necessary mental health care
of depression or anxiety, but as part of it,
and for prevention.
ALL IMAGES BY SHUTTERSTOCK
There are other perks besides the neuro-
Going out for a walk biological impacts of exercise. When go-
or bike ride offers ing out for a walk, one gets more exposure
exercise with the to sunlight, fresh air, and nature. One of
additional bonus of my patients befriended a neighbor during
sunlight, fresh air, her regular walks, leading to regular taco
and nature. Tuesdays with that new friend. I have made
some great friends at my boxing gym,
who are not only my motivators but also
a great supporting social network. One
might pick a dog as a running mate, and
another might meet a new date, or enjoy
the high energy at the gym. Exercise can
also function as a mindfulness practice
and a respite from common daily stressors,
and from our electronic devices and TV.
By increasing energy and fitness levels,
exercise can also improve self-image and
self-esteem.
Practical Ways for a Busy Life
So how can you find time to exercise, es-
pecially with all the additional time de-
mands of the pandemic, and the limita-
tions imposed by the pandemic such as
limited access to the gym? Here are some
suggestions.
Pick something you can love. Not all of
us have to run on a treadmill (I actually
hate it). What works for one person might
not work for another. Try a diverse group
of activities and see which one you like
more: running, walking, dancing, biking,
There’s evidence for kayaking, boxing, weights, swimming. You
the positive effects can even rotate between some or make
of exercise on neuro- seasonal changes to avoid boredom. It
transmitters—brain doesn’t even have to be called “exercise.”
chemicals that send Whatever raises your heartbeat or strains
signals between
neurons—dopamine
your muscles can count, whether it be
and endorphins. dancing, playing with the kids, or building
a garden shed.
Use positive peer pressure to your ad-
vantage. I have created a group message
for the boxing gym because at 5:30 p.m.,
after a busy day at the clinic, I might have
trouble finding the motivation to go to the
gym or do an online workout. It is easier
when friends send a message they are going
and motivate you. And even if you don’t
feel comfortable going to a gym during the
pandemic, you can join an online workout
together.
Don’t see it as all or none. Exercise doesn’t
have to be a one-hour session at the gym
or a 20-mile bike ride vs. staying on the
couch. I always say to my patients: “One
more step is better than none, and three
squats are better than no squats.” When
less motivated, or just starting out, be nice
to yourself. Do as much as possible. Three
minutes of dancing with your favorite
music still counts.
Merge it with other activities. Walking
Now for 15 minutes while on the phone with a
friend, even around the house, is still being
knowing the active. Helping a friend get some yard work
importance done is an excellent way to socialize and
get some exercise.
of exercising, When hesitant or low on motivation, ask
almost all yourself: “When was the last time I regret-
ted doing it?”
my patients Although it can help, exercise is not the
ultimate weight loss strategy; diet is. One
commit to large brownie might be more calories than
some level of an hour of running. Don’t give up on ex-
ercise if you’re not losing weight. It’s still
exercise, and I providing all the benefits we discussed.
Even if you don’t feel anxious or de-
have seen how pressed, still take the exercise pills. Use
it benefits them for protecting your brain.
several areas Arash Javanbakht is an associate profes-
of their life sor of psychiatry at Wayne State Univer-
sity. This article was first published on The
and livelihood. Conversation.
B5
Eating
Leafy Green
Vegetables
Every Day
Could Boost
Muscle
Strength
SARAH COWNLEY
Green, leafy vegetables are good for over-
all health, but new research shows that
they could also boost muscle strength.
The study from Edith Cowan University
(ECU) found that people who consume a
nitrate-rich diet had significantly better
muscle function in their lower limbs.
Many older adults suffer from poor mus-
cle function, leading to a greater risk of falls
and fractures. It can also be considered
a key indicator of general health. With
around one in three seniors suffering a fall
each year, it’s essential to find alternative
ways to prevent these events, as they can
sometimes have serious consequences.
12-Year Study
Researchers analyzed data from 3,759
Australians who took part in Melbourne’s
Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute for the
study. Over the 12 years of the study, it was
found that those with the highest regular
nitrate consumption had 11 percent stron-
ger lower limb strength than those with the
lowest nitrate intake. It was also found that
these participants had up to a 4 percent
faster walking speed.
The nitrates recorded to have the most
impact on muscle strength came from leafy
vegetables. Some of the best sources include
lettuce, spinach, kale, and even beetroot.
This study builds on previous research
that has found a relationship between ni-
trate and muscle function in older women.
Other studies have also found a connection
between vegetables and cardiovascular
health, including another recent one from
ECU that found a relationship between cru-
ciferous vegetables and blood vessel health.
Researchers say the next step will be to
explore strategies to increase leafy green
vegetable consumption in the general
population.
“We are currently recruiting for the MOD-
EL Study, which examines how knowledge
of disease can be used to prompt people in
making long-term improvements to their
diet and exercise,” said lead researcher Dr.
Marc Sim.
Many people often wonder if supple-
ments can be taken instead of consum-
ing leafy vegetables each day, but Dr. Sim
explains: “Green leafy vegetables provide
a whole range of essential vitamins and
minerals critical for health.”
Americans should be consuming a vari-
ety of vegetables every day, with at least one
serving being leafy greens. But vegetables
don’t just work alone. Regular physical ac-
tivity is needed to increase bone health.
These small steps can help to ensure posi-
tive health benefits for the musculoskeletal
and cardiovascular systems.
Sarah Cownley earned a diploma in
nutritional therapy from Health Sciences
Academy in London, and she enjoys help-
ing others by teaching healthy lifestyle
changes through her personal consulta-
tions and with her regular contributions to
the Doctors Health Press. This article was
originally published on Bel Marra Health.
MARTY HARRINGTON/UNSPLASH
Some of the most nitrate-rich vegetables are
lettuce, spinach, kale, and beetroot.
B6
Life Skills We Want for Our
Children Before They Leave Home
As children leave home, it can provide peace of mind to know
they have learned some essential life skills
JOSHUA BECKER
“There are only two lasting bequests we
can hope to give our children. One of
these is roots, the other wings.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
My son Salem is 18 years old and will
graduate high school this year.
It’s hard to believe this is the same
young man who sat down with me dur-
ing a snow day 10 years ago to write “An
8-Year Old’s Guide to Buying Good Toys.”
But indeed, he has grown into a fine
young man and will be heading off to
college next year.
At the beginning of his senior year of
high school, my wife sat down and wrote
out 12 life skills that she wanted to make
sure our son knew before leaving home.
Some of the skills he had already picked
up, but others we decided to intention-
ally teach over the past year. I thought
it might be helpful to share our list with
you. So here it is:
There are life skills
and worldviews to
consider when it comes
to personal finance:
opportunity cost, why
to budget, living below
your means, giving,
saving, and the life-
giving benefits of buying
only what you need.
12 Life Skills We Want for Our
Kids Before They Leave Home
1. Cooking
It isn’t particularly important that our
son knows how to properly prepare
baked Alaska for his next dinner party
(although it is my daughter’s favorite des-
sert). But we did want to make sure he
knew how to cook, grill, and even bake
some simple meals for himself. Man can-
not live on fast food alone.
2. Cleaning
Salem has had plenty of experience
vacuuming, dusting, tidying, cleaning
mirrors, and emptying trash over the
years of growing up. But we also wanted
to make sure he knew how to clean other
areas of home that are less routine: toi-
lets, stovetops, and ceiling fans, as an ex-
ample. Knowing that her son knew how
to clean a bathroom from top to bottom
was of special importance for Kim.
3. Yardwork
Mowing, trimming, planting,
pruning. Even making sure he
knows to call the utility com-
pany hotline before digging.
4. Laundry
Kim has always handled the laundry
in our home—or at least for as long as I
can remember. She’s been very intention-
al, especially this year, about showing
Salem how to launder not just his own
clothes, but the clothes of anyone
in his future home.
We wanted
to make sure
he knew
how to cook,
grill, and
even bake
some simple
meals for
himself.
Young adults that learn
simple home repairs will
feel more comfortable
venturing toward larger
more complex fix-it
projects.
If teens learn to cook,
they can avoid the
discouraging experience
of ruining a meal.
SIMONA PILOLLA 2/SHUTTERSTOCK
MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
JACK FROG/SHUTTERSTOCK
IAKOV FILIMONOV/SHUTTERSTOCK
5. Iron
Ironing has always been my gig. Some-
one showed me how to properly iron in
college and I’ve been hooked ever since.
So we wanted to show the how (and why)
of not living life in wrinkly clothes.
6. Emergency Car Repairs
Mechanics isn’t my thing. But emergency
car repairs, those things that can happen
on the side of the road away from help,
are essential to know. How to jumpstart
a dead battery, how to change a tire, how
to read dashboard warning lights, and
what to do in a collision. If we didn’t live
in Phoenix, I’d also add how to drive in
the snow and ice, and what to do if your
car gets stuck.
7. Simple Home Repairs
Home repair also isn’t a skill in my reper-
toire—never in my life have I considered
removing a wall to open up a room. But
there are a few simple home repairs that
I believe my son and daughter should be
able to accomplish in their future home.
There is a certain wisdom that grows from the experience of
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but among the
specific repairs: how to unclog a drain, re- seeing long-term efforts come to fruition.
place light fixtures, shut off water, replace
a garbage disposal, reset breakers, hang 11. Dating
decorations, fix a leaky sink. Thinking primarily of my son as he
graduates high school, I want to know
8. Painting I’ve taught him how to be a gentleman in
There are very few things that refresh a both courtship and a dating relationship.
home quicker and less expensively than I also want him to know what relational
painting the walls. And it’s one of the qualities are important to develop and
only home improvements we’ve made what qualities to look for in a spouse.
in every new home we’ve moved into. So
we put it on the list to make sure our kids 12. Faith
know how to do it well. I don’t write much about my faith here on
this blog, but my Christian faith has and
9. Personal Finance will continue to be important to me. And
There are technical skills to teach: how to I want it to be important to my kids. So
write a check, how to balance a check- we were sure to add to our list, not just an
book, how a credit card works, how understanding of our faith, but also the
compound interest works, etc. But there life skills for them to pursue it on their
are also life skills and worldviews to own.
consider when it comes to personal I don’t necessarily publish this list
finance: opportunity cost, why because I think it’s the exact list you
to budget, living below your need for your own family. But I do think
means, giving, saving, and the it’s important that we are intentional as
life-giving benefits of buying parents—not just in providing a loving
only what you need. home for our children but also in prepar-
ing them for life on their own. Our goal is
10. Shopping to launch him into adulthood prepared
Related to personal fi- and an asset to society.
nance, how to shop wisely This is the list of 12 life skills we’ve been
is an essential ingredient. working off of the past year as our son
It’s important to know not prepares to leave home next fall. And I
just what to buy, but how encourage you to create your own (or
to buy. So Kim put this on steal ours).
the life skills list and I’m
glad she thought to in- Joshua Becker is an author, public speak-
clude it. How to shop for er, and the founder and editor of Becom-
groceries, how to shop ing Minimalist where he inspires others to
for clothes, and how to live more by owning less. Visit Becoming-
shop for essentials. Minimalist.com
 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021 B7

MINDSET MATTERS

How to Quiet the Voice in Your Head

Reclaim your mind from your inner narrator and experience life directly
AILA IMAGES/SHUTTERSTOCK

Continued from B1 downside to living with this inner narra-

Often, the narration is so integral to the
experience itself that we wonder if there
even could be an experience without an
accompanying report. Without simulta-
neous inner acknowledgment, thinking,
and commentary, did it actually happen?
It’s also interesting to notice that our
commentator has an identity of its own.
It has a certain language, style, and tone,
a certain thematic and textural consis-
tency. Like a Hollywood screenwriter,
our inner voice tends to work in a par-
ticular genre—tragedy, comedy, drama,
or film noir, for example.
Did you ever wonder why your mind was
telling you what you’re doing as if you didn’t
already know? And why your mind is so
adamant about getting the story of your life
figured out, written, and packaged?
It’s liberating to
realize that the
narrator’s account
of what’s happening
is only in your
mind. It’s not real in
tor? And do we have to live this way? Is it
part and parcel of the human condition?
The answers are a resounding yes, and no.
Yes, there is a downside, and no, we aren’t
condemned to living this way forever.
The first downside to the inner narrator
is that it can be intensely agitating and
distracting. There exists constant noise in
the background and foreground of your
life, like having a mosquito (or buzz saw)
in your ear that you can’t silence or ignore.
But on a more profound level, the nar-
rator stands in the way of your actually
experiencing life first hand, in all its rich-
ness. You’re relegated to living through
your narrator’s description, a mental
representation of the real thing, like get-
ting a postcard of the Grand Canyon in
place of being there. The voice then goes
on to offer commentary on the narration,
and you are now two layers away from
the direct experience of living.
You might also notice that the voice in
your head presents its version of your life
as a truth. It reports your life story as if
it were the actual reality existing in the on it. We commit to diving deeply and When we stop
objective world. It’s liberating, however, directly into the ocean of life. listening to the
to realize that the narrator’s account Listening to the little voice in your voice in our
of what’s happening is only in your head is a habit—granted, a habit with head, we free
up our atten-
mind. It’s not real in an objective sense, deep roots, survival instincts, and lots of
tion to explore
but rather another story about a story— practice time, but a habit nonetheless.
and experi-
which begins and ends inside your own Listening to With desire, willingness, and intention, ence the world
consciousness. The good news is that any habit can be changed. Each time you
you don’t have to live this way, with a the little voice catch the voice in your head, try to prac-
directly.

an objective sense. middle manager between you and life.

Presence of Mind
The mind tends to believe that we are
made of mind and mind alone—that
without its felt presence, we, and all else,
would cease to be; that a mind off-duty,
an experience without the thinking, is
tantamount to nonexistence. The mind
creates the story of an “I” as an object in
our consciousness. In so doing, it main-
tains both the experience of a self and
the experiencer of a self, which it believes
are needed to ensure survival.
In relentlessly narrating the story of
ourselves (to ourselves), our minds are
attempting to make life, and us, into
something solid, knowable, and con-
stant. By creating a main character
called “me” who’s living something
called “my life,” the mind attempts to
transform the ephemeral, ever-chang-
ing nature of being into something
that can be understood, managed, and
controlled. It takes life, from which we
are inseparable, and splits it into two dif-
ferent things: a “me” and a “life.” We then
become seemingly distinct and real. We
literally think our “self” into existence.
And so, this begs the question, is there a
If you’ve ever been deeply involved
in an activity, you might have expe-
rienced what’s referred to as the flow
state. In flow, we’re so engaged in what
we’re doing that we cease to be aware
of ourselves. We become absorbed into
the experience. All notion of time and a
separate “I” disappears. And we discover
that even when the mind isn’t there self-
referencing, we don’t disappear, which
suggests that we are more than the
mind. Awareness remains even when we
lose the felt sense of self. And, interest-
ingly, such experiences are the ones that
we later describe as wholly satisfying,
blissful, and even divine. The experi-
ences in which we are gone are the ones
that we most crave.
How to Quiet the Voice
The remedy for the little voice in our head
is three-fold. First, we have to become
so fed up with the play-by-play that we
decide we’re not willing to listen or live
by it anymore. Once that’s happened, we
must start noticing our narrator and be-
come aware that its voice is an object ap-
pearing in our awareness. And finally,
we must set a clear, fierce intention and
desire to experience life directly through
our senses, and not just receive a report
in your head tice a new habit—the habit of directly
experiencing your life. First, pause and
is a habit— celebrate a moment of awareness; the
fact that you’re hearing the voice means
a habit with that there’s another part of you that’s
awakening—the real you.
deep roots. Next, intentionally shift your attention
from your head (which is where our en-
ergy is usually focused) down into your
body. Invite your body to consciously
relax. Take and feel a deep breath. From
there, run a sense loop: Notice what
you’re seeing, hearing, feeling, smell-
ing, or tasting. Experience each, one at a
time. And finally, sense your own physi-
cal presence, the feeling of life in your
body (not your mind).
With this practice, the little voice in
your head will grow quieter and less
relentless, and living will become more
vivid, satisfying, and ultimately, real.
Nancy Colier is a psychotherapist, inter-
faith minister, author, public speaker, and
workshop leader. She is a regular blogger
for Psychology Today and The Huffington
Post. Colier is available for individual
psychotherapy, mindfulness training,
spiritual counseling, public speaking, and
workshops, and also works with clients
around the world via Skype. For more
information, visit NancyColier.com
BEKIR DONMEZ/UNSPLASH

WISE HABITS

The Fear of Putting Our Work Out There

Sharing our creative efforts can expose us to criticism, but that’s a small price to pay
JACK FROG/SHUTTERSTOCK

If you create something but don’t share it,
take small steps to get the work out there. For
example, you can show it to a friend.
LEO BABAUTA
One of the most common fears of anyone
who is creating something, whether it’s
online content, art, or a new business or
startup, is the fear of putting our work out
there in the world.
It’s a fear that leads us to procrastinate,
research endlessly, check social media, an-
swer emails, buy books on the topic, listen
to podcasts and watch Youtube videos, or
even clean our kitchen.
None of these things are bad—they’re
so human! But it’s a fear we have to face
at some point if we ever want to make an
impact on the world.
I’d love to share how I work with this
fear—I’ve been doing it for decades now.
The brief summary:
1. I have a litmus test: If I’m not creat-
ing or putting the creation out into
the world, there’s a good chance I’m
procrastinating. (There are exceptions
of course.)
2. If I’m avoiding, then I create space to face
the fear and create and put it out there.
3. Then I face it. And play with it. And learn
to relish it!
Let me describe what this looks like in
practice.
The Core of Our Fear
What’s so scary about putting our work
out into the world? Well, we don’t know
how it will be received by other people—it’s
full of uncertainty, and we don’t like that
uncertainty.
They might judge us, dismiss our work
as having no value, or think we’re stupid.
We’ll then feel embarrassed or rejected.
This uncertainty is too much to bear for
many people.
And yet, as understandable as that is, this
fear will shut down the possibility of having
an impact on the world.
Let’s just pause and let our hearts be bro-
ken by the possibility we could be com-
pletely shut down and never bring our gift
to the world.
And then let’s connect to the impact we’d
like to make. Would we like to move people’s
hearts, change people’s lives, open their
eyes to something new? How delightful!
Facing the Avoidance
In order to face our fear and what we’re
avoiding, we have to know we’re avoiding.
So the first thing I do is ask myself, “Am
I creating right now, or putting my work
out into the world?” If not, there’s a decent
chance I’m avoiding out of fear.
There are seeming exceptions of course:
collaborating with others in team meetings
(I would argue that’s creating), coaching
(that’s both creating and putting my work
out there), research (but keep it to a bare
minimum, most people procrastinate by
researching more than is needed). We have
to do admin work and emails too—but if I
haven’t created today, then I know I let my
day get filled with administrative busy-
work instead of focusing on the thing that
matters.
So once we see we’re avoiding creating
and putting it out there, it helps to create
structure to face the fear.
If you’re avoiding creating: set up a daily
session to feel the fear and then create.
Not research, but actually create. Do it on
a video call with others, if that helps, or get
an accountability group.
If you’re creating but avoiding putting it
out there: commit to doing it in small steps.
For example, send it to a group of people
you trust. When that gets easy, send it to a
larger group. Then put it into other com-
munities.
Work on the muscle of creating, and put-
ting it out there regularly. Every day.
Leo Babauta is the author of six books, the
writer of Zen Habits, a blog with over 2
million subscribers, and the creator of sev-
eral online programs to help you master
your habits. Visit ZenHabits.net
B8 MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021

MINDSET MATTERS

Narcissism Comes From Insecurity,

Not Inflated Sense of Self
OPOLJA/SHUTTERSTOCK

JAMES DEVITT nerable narcissism. A related affliction,

N
arcissism is driven by insecuri-
ty, not an inflated sense of self,
finds a new study by a team of
psychology researchers.
Its research, which offers a
more detailed understanding of this long-
examined phenomenon, may also explain
what motivates the self-focused nature of
social media activity.
“For a long time, it was unclear why nar-
cissists engage in unpleasant behaviors,
such as self-congratulation, as it actually
makes others think less of them,” explains
Pascal Wallisch, a clinical associate profes-
sor in New York University’s psychology
department and the senior author of the
paper in the journal Personality and Indi-
vidual Differences.
“This has become quite prevalent in the
age of social media—a behavior that’s been
coined ‘flexing,’” Wallisch said.
“Our work reveals that these  narcis-
sists are not grandiose, but rather insecure,
and this is how they seem to cope with their
insecurities.”
“More specifically, the results suggest
that narcissism is better understood as a
compensatory adaptation to overcome and
cover up low self-worth,” adds Mary Kowal-
chyk, the paper’s lead author and an NYU
graduate student at the time of the study.
“Narcissists are insecure, and they cope
with these insecurities by flexing. This
makes others like them less in the long run,
thus further aggravating their insecurities,
which then leads to a vicious cycle of flex-
ing behaviors.”
The survey’s nearly 300 participants—
approximately 60 percent female and 40
percent male—had a median age of 20 and
answered 151 questions via computer.
The researchers examined Narcissistic
Personality Disorder, conceptualized as
excessive self-love and consisting of two
subtypes, known as grandiose and vul-
psychopathy, is also characterized by a
grandiose sense of self. The researchers
sought to refine the understanding of how
these conditions relate.
To do so, they designed a new measure,
called PRISN (Performative Refinement
to soothe Insecurities about Sophistica-
tioN), which produced FLEX (perForma-
Narcissists tive seLf-Elevation indeX). FLEX captures
often brag insecurity-driven self-conceptualizations
as a way to manifested as impression management,
compensate for leading to self-elevating tendencies.
insecurities. The PRISN scale includes commonly used
measures to investigate social desirability
(“No matter who I am talking to I am a good
listener”), self-esteem (“On the whole, I am
satisfied with myself”), and psychopathy (“I
tend to lack remorse”). FLEX was shown to
be made up of four components: impres-
sion management (“I am likely to show
off if I get the chance”), the need for social
validation (“It matters that I am seen at
important events”), self-elevation (“I have
exquisite taste”), and social dominance (“I
like knowing more than other people”).
Overall, the results showed high correla-
tions between FLEX and narcissism—but
not with psychopathy. For example, the
need for social validation (a FLEX metric)
correlated with the reported tendency to
engage in performative self-elevation (a
characteristic of vulnerable narcissism).
By contrast, measures of psychopathy, such
as elevated levels of self-esteem, showed low
correlation levels with vulnerable narcis-
sism, implying a lack of insecurity.
These findings suggest that genuine nar-
cissists are insecure and are best described
by the vulnerable narcissism subtype,
whereas grandiose narcissism might be
Grandiose narcissism better understood as a manifestation of
psychopathy.
might be better understood
as a manifestation of This article was originally published
by NYU. Republished via Futurity.org
psychopathy. under Creative Commons License 4.0.

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