NEW YOR K | DC EDITION
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In the News
NEWS
Approximately 1 in 6 U.S.
adults have been fully vacci-
nated against the CCP virus,
federal data show. ... A8
Shootings and murders
have significantly increased
in Portland, Oregon, since May
2020, following the death of
George Floyd, data show. ...A4
The United States is set to
open another facility to deal
with a surge in unaccompa-
nied minors over the southern
border, the Biden administra-
tion says. ... A8
House Administration Com-
mittee Chairwoman Zoe Lof-
gren and two other Democrats
on the panel have a conflict of
interest, Republicans say. ...A2
Commissioners in a Michi-
gan county have voted unani-
mously to hand count every
ballot cast in an upcoming
primary. ... A7
Julia Letlow has won a spe-
cial election in Louisiana for
the U.S. House seat of her late
husband, former Rep.-elect
Luke Letlow. ... A5
The special election to fill
the Louisiana U.S. House seat
vacated by Rep. Cedric Rich-
mond is heading to a runoff.
... A7
Housing and Urban De-
velopment Secretary Mar-
cia Fudge may have violated
an ethics law by endorsing
Democrats in a Senate race,
experts say. ... A6
A restaurant owner in
Michigan has been arrested
for defying state pandemic
restrictions and ignoring a
court order, the state attor-
ney general says. ... A7
Spectators from abroad will
be barred from attending the
postponed Tokyo Olympics,
officials say. ... A11
CHINA
More than 200 Chinese
vessels manned by military
personnel have encroached
on Phillipine territory, spark-
ing tensions between the two
nations. ... A9
Another housing bubble
looms as China attempts to
slowly navigate itself out of a
pandemic. ... A9
BUSINESS
Now is the time to focus on
the root causes of February’s
outages and let the full body
of evidence speak to the rela-
tionship between regulation
and grid reliability, experts
say. ... A17
Investment flows into U.S.
equity funds jumped to a five-
week high last week, data from
Refinitiv Lipper show. ...A17
OPINION
Robert B. Chernin: American
Exceptionalism Versus the Peo-
ple’s Republic of China...A13
Newt Gingrich: The People of
Arizona Versus the Democrat
Machine...A14
Mark Bauerlein: An America-
First George Soros...A16
LIFESTYLE
Before attempting to lower
your anxiety, you should under-
stand your anxiety routines, a
new book suggests. ...B1
Our cultural obsession with
novelty runs counter to our
natural inclination for simplic-
ity. ...B2
DON’T DELAY.
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| M O N D A Y, M A R C H 2 2 , 2 0 21
SOUTHERN BORDER
Biden Administration Announces
Tougher Border Policies
Breaking with administration immigration policy, DHS Secretary Mayorkas
says: ‘We are expelling families. We are expelling single adults.’
BY JACK PHILLIPS &
CHARLOTTE CUTHBERTSON
D
epartment of Homeland
Security (DHS) Secretary
Alejandro Mayorkas says
the U.S.–Mexico border
is closed, although unaccompa-
nied children who unlawfully
cross into the United States won’t
be turned back.
“We are expelling families. We are
expelling single adults. And we’ve
made a decision that we will not
expel young, vulnerable children. I
think we are executing on our plans
,” Mayorkas told NBC News’ “Meet
the Press” on March 21.
Mayorkas was then asked by
TRANSGENDER
Noem
Asks for
Changes to
Transgender
Sports Bill
Critics say South Dakota
governor is trying to mollify
corporate interests
BY JANITA KAN
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on
March 19 sent a bill that would bar
biological males from participat-
ing in women’s sports back to state
legislators for changes.
Noem, who previously said she
was “excited” to sign the bill, ex-
pressed concern that the measure
in its current form contains “vague
and overly broad language” that
could have “significant unintended
consequences.”
MEDIA
Federal Judge Claims Democrats Are Close to Controlling All Major News Outlets
BY ZACHARY STIEBER
A federal judge last week said that
the Democratic Party is close to
controlling the press as he detailed
what he described as shocking bias
against Republicans.
D.C. Circuit Court Judge Laurence
Silberman outlined his opposition
to the Supreme Court’s key deci-
sion in 1964 in New York Times v.
Sullivan, which has since protected
many media outlets from lawsuits.
Silberman, a Reagan appointee,
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
Illegal immigrants climb up an embankment after running across the shallow
Rio Grande from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, into El Paso, Texas, on March 17, 2021.
Chuck Todd, the host, about wheth-
er the policy encourages parents in
Mexico and other countries to send
their children alone to the border.
“We have a short-term plan, a me-
dium-term plan, and a long-term
plan, and the president and I have
spoken to this repeatedly. Please
remember something: That Presi-
dent [Donald] Trump dismantled
the orderly, humane, and efficient
way of allowing children to make
their claims under United States
law in their home countries,” the
secretary said, without elaborating.
Mayorkas’s appearance followed
a week in which the press began
criticizing the Biden administra-
tion’s border policies. President Joe
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem addresses the Conservative Political Action Confer-
ence held in the Hyatt Regency in Orlando on Feb. 27, 2021.
The legislation,  House Bill
1217, which aims to “promote con-
tinued fairness in women’s sports,”
passed in the state House in Febru-
ary. The state Senate subsequently
passed the bill in early March. The
language of the bill specifies that
“a team or sport designated as be-
ing female is available only to par-
ticipants who are female, based on
CHUNG I HO/THE EPOCH TIMES
A copy of The Wall Street Journal
newspaper for sale at a newsstand on
Feb. 19, 2020.
VOL . X V I I I | NO. 2,922 $1.
JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES
US–CHINA
US Should
Limit
Investments
in China:
Panel
Most emerging markets
indexes have nearly 40
percent direct allocation to
Chinese stocks and bonds
BY EMEL AKAN
WASHINGTON—The Trump admin-
istration took swift action in its final
months to ban investments in com-
munist Chinese military companies,
in an effort to curb Beijing’s access to
the lucrative U.S. stock market. How-
ever, more work needs to be done to
protect U.S. capital markets and criti-
cal technologies, according to a panel
of China experts.
The Trump administration
in January banned
investing in 44 companies
identified by the Pentagon
as ‘communist Chinese
military companies.’
There’s a need to modernize U.S.
laws and export controls, Nazak
DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES Nikakhtar, partner at law firm Wi-
ley Rein LLP and former assistant
secretary at the U.S. Department
of Commerce, said on March 19 at
a hearing by the U.S.–China Eco-
nomic and Security Review Com-
mission (USCC).
The United States should come
to terms with the reality that busi-
ness dealings with Chinese firms
Secretary of Homeland Security have aided the growth of China’s
Alejandro Mayorkas speaks during the military-industrial complex for the
daily press briefing at the White House past four decades, Nikakhtar said
on March 1, 2021. during her testimony.
“Maintaining the status quo can-
Biden’s immigration policies also not be our strategy going forward,”
have been blasted by Trump admin- she said.
istration officials and Republicans, Nikakhtar said a recent analy-
who have said that they’re weak and sis by the Commerce Department
Continued on A3 Continued on A3
JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES
TAXES
Most Americans
Feel Overtaxed,
Oppose Any
New Taxes:
Rasmussen Polls
BY TOM OZIMEK
Most Americans say they’re being
taxed too much and oppose any
new taxes, according to two new
polls, which come as the Biden ad-
ministration considers funding op-
tions to pay for big-ticket programs.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen re-
cently said that President Joe Biden
is looking at raising taxes on wealthy
their biological sex.” Americans and corporations—and
In a letter to state legislators, may consider an outright wealth
she reiterated her commitment to tax—to pay for future programs, as
advance HB 1217 but added that attention turns to funding measures
the  wording of the bill required for the next big legislative push—an
several changes in its “style” and infrastructure plan.
“form” before she could sign it. Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.)
Among her suggestions for chang- confirmed in an  interview with
es include limiting the operation The Sacramento Bee that Biden is
Continued on A5 Continued on A2
DONALD TRUMP
MILLER ON DONALD
TRUMP’S ANNOUNCED
wrote that the ruling is “a threat to
American Democracy” and must
be overturned.
“The increased power of the press
is so dangerous today because we
SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
“[Trump will]
are very close to one-party control
of these institutions. Our court completely
was once concerned about the redefine
the game,”
institutional consolidation of the
press leading to a ‘bland and ho- spokesman
mogenous’ marketplace of ideas. It Jason Miller
turns out that ideological consoli- said.
dation of the press (helped along by n A2
Read more on
Continued on A6
A2 | NATION
House GOPers Say Iowa Election Challenger’s
Counsel Has Conflict of Interest
MARK TAPSCOTT
House Administration Commit-
tee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren
(D-Calif.) and two other Demo-
cratic members of the panel have
a conflict of interest because each
is represented by Marc Elias, the
lawyer for two Democratic candi-
dates in 2020 election results being
challenged before the Lofgren pan-
el, according to Republican critics.
The conflict of inter-
est consists of the
fact that Elias simul-
taneously represents
Lofgren and two
other Democratic
committee members,
as well as Hart.
“We write to bring to your atten-
tion to a serious conflict of interest
regarding Marc Elias, an attorney
with the law firm Perkins Coie,”
Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), the
ranking minority member of the
administration committee, wrote
in a March 19 letter to Lofgren.
“In the election contests current-
ly before us, Mr. Elias simultane-
ously represents Members of the
Committee, the triers of fact and
law, and parties to these contests,
an arrangement clearly prohib-
ited by attorney ethics rules and
obligations.”
Also signing the letter were the
other two Republicans on the
committee, Reps. Barry Louder-
milk of Georgia and Bryan Steil
of Wisconsin.
Elias and the Seattle-based
Perkins Coie law firm frequently
represent Democratic campaigns
and candidates in election law and
ethics cases. He and colleagues
from the firm were recently
sanctioned by the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for
Most Americans Feel Overtaxed, Oppose Any
New Taxes: Rasmussen Polls
CONTINUED FROM A1
considering raising the excise tax
on fuel and possibly adding a car-
bon tax to help pay for the infra-
structure plan, which so far has no
official price tag, but which ana-
lysts have projected at between $2
trillion and $4 trillion.
Biden himself confirmed in a re-
cent interview that he’s looking to
raise taxes.
But appetite among Americans
for any new taxes—regardless of
spending goal—is flagging, accord-
ing to a new Just the News/Rasmus-
sen poll. It shows that 52 percent of
U.S. respondents said they oppose
raising taxes at the present time.
Raising taxes for infrastructure
spending got the most support (28
percent), followed by initiatives
that would reduce climate change
(19 percent), with deficit and debt
reduction coming last (16 percent).
A second poll, carried out by Ras-
mussen, sought to gauge whether
Americans feel they’re paying
“their fair share” of taxes.
“Compared to people who make
more or less than you, do you pay
more than your fair share of taxes?”
respondents were asked, with 51
percent of American adults indi-
cating they believe they are pay-
ing more than their fair share of
taxes. The percentage of Ameri-
cans who feel overtaxed is down
from 59 percent last year, which
was the highest level since 2008 of
people saying they’re being taxed
too harshly.
The Rasmussen poll also showed
that just 27 percent of Americans
said they don’t believe they’re pay-
ing more than their fair share of
taxes, while 22 percent said they’re
not sure.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) leaves the Senate chamber, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 3, 2020.
ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
filing “redundant and misleading
information” and ordered to pay
legal and punitive costs of their
opponents in the case.
The Elias firm was representing
the Democratic Senatorial Cam-
paign Committee and the Demo-
cratic Congressional Campaign
Committee in a lawsuit against
Texas officials in the case that
prompted the sanctioning.
Elias also represented 2016 Dem-
JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
It comes as Biden has vowed to
get Democrat votes for a tax hike,
including a corporate tax cut roll-
back and an increase in taxes on
wealthier Americans.
“Anybody making more than
$400,000 will see a small to a sig-
nificant tax increase,” Biden said,
when asked by ABC News’ George
Stephanopoulos if he would raise
taxes on higher earners who ben-
efited from former President Don-
ald Trump’s tax cuts.
“If you make less than $400,000,
you won’t see one single penny in
additional federal tax.”
When asked if he would get any
Republican support for his tax
plan, Biden replied that he “may
not get it.”
“But I’ll get the Democratic votes
for a tax increase,” the president
said. “If we just took the tax rate
back to what it was when [George
W.] Bush was president—the top
rate paid 39.6 percent in federal tax-
es—that would raise $230 billion.”
Biden’s proposed tax increases
may be part of the infrastructure
bill, which has already received
pushback from Senate Republi-
Rep. Rodney
Davis (R-Ill.)
speaks to
members of the
media at the
U.S. Capitol in
Washington on
March 13, 2020.
ocratic presidential candidate Hill-
ary Clinton, whose campaign paid
for the opposition research firm he
hired, Fusion GPS.
It was Fusion GPS that produced
the discredited Steele dossier con-
taining multiple false allegations
against former President Donald
Trump that was at the center of the
Russiagate scandal.
The conflict of interest high-
lighted by the Republicans con-
Signs are posted
in front of an
H&R Block tax
preparation
office in Oak-
land, Calif., on
April 15, 2019.
cans, who expect Democrats to
craft the bill with reconciliation—
the budget process that would let
it bypass the 60-vote legislative
filibuster.
“I think the Trojan horse will be
called infrastructure. But inside
the Trojan horse will be all the tax
increases that Sen. [Rick] Scott and
others have been talking about,”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mc-
Connell (R-Ky.) said March 16 at a
press conference.
McConnell said he expects
Democrats to use budget recon-
ciliation, as they did with the $1.9
trillion pandemic relief package,
which cleared the Senate with zero
Republican support.
“They have one more of those
available to them, and my suspi-
cion is they will try to jam every-
thing they can into that bill and
call it an infrastructure bill,” Mc-
Connell said. “I fully expect that’s
what they’ll try to do, and that’s
because I don’t think there’s going
to be any enthusiasm on our side
for a tax increase.”
GQ Pan contributed to this report.
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
MANDEL NGAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
sists of the fact Elias simultane-
ously represents Lofgren and two
other Democratic committee
members—Reps. Pete Aguilar of
California and Mary Gay Scanlon
of Pennsylvania—as well as Hart.
Democrat Rita Hart is challeng-
ing the November 2020 election of
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in
Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District
by six votes. Miller-Meeks’s victory
was certified by state election of-
ficials following a recount. Hart’s
challenge is now before the admin-
istration panel, which has oversight
jurisdiction for federal elections.
Elias also represents Rep. Lauren
Underwood (D-Ill.) whose elec-
tion last November by more than
5,600 votes is being challenged
before the Lofgren committee by
Republican Jim Oberweis. Un-
derwood represents a suburban
Chicago district that was once
represented by GOP Speaker of
the House Dennis Hastert.
“Rule 1.7 of the American Bar As-
Trump Plans Social Media Return
With ‘His Own Platform,’ Adviser Says
JACK PHILLIPS
Former President Donald Trump
will set up his own social me-
dia platform and will return to
posting online in two to three
months, his adviser and spokes-
man Jason Miller said in a new
interview.
For years, Trump favored Twit-
ter and had amassed nearly 90
million followers before the social
media platform suspended him
in January. Facebook, YouTube,
Twitch, Snapchat, and others also
moved to suspend the former
president; meanwhile, Trump
hasn’t indicated that he would
use other social media websites
favored by conservatives such as
Gab, MeWe, or Parler.
Miller told Fox News on March
21 that he expects Trump will
“[return] to social media in two
or three months” with “his own
platform” that will “completely
redefine the game” and attract
“tens of millions” of users.
Miller, who is Trump’s most
prominent spokesman, didn’t
elaborate or offer a possible name
for the social media venture.
Since Twitter suspended his
account, the former president
has instead opted to release
press statements via advisers
and email. For the most part,
Trump has released statements
endorsing his favored political
candidates for the 2022 midterm
elections.
Also in the interview, Miller
said that Trump still holds a con-
siderable amount of sway in the
Republican Party.
“He’s already had over 20 sena-
tors, over 50 members of Con-
gress call ... or make the pilgrim-
age to Mar-a-Lago,” he said. “Pay
sociation’s (ABA) Model Rules of
Professional Conduct clearly pro-
hibit an attorney from engaging
in representation that involves ‘a
concurrent conflict of interest,’” the
Republicans told Lofgren.
“Such a conflict exists here: You,
Mr. Aguilar, and Ms. Scanlon serve
as triers of fact and law on the tribu-
nal charged with deciding election
contests, and Mr. Elias represents
you; Ms. Hart and Ms. Underwood
are parties to election contests be-
fore the Committee, and Mr. Elias
represents them.
“Your interests are quite clearly
‘directly adverse’ to one another,
and Mr. Elias’ ability to offer ad-
vice to both sides certainly ‘will be
materially limited by [his] respon-
sibilities to another client,’ namely
you, Mr. Aguilar, Ms. Scanlon, and
the parties to the election contests
before the Committee. Rule 1.7(a).
“We are gravely concerned that
these serious conflicts of interest
and ethical lapses on the part of
counsel compromise the work of
this committee, and, more spe-
cifically, demonstrate further that
the Democratic Members of this
committee operate not in search
of the truth but solely in search of
partisan, political gain.”
Davis, Loudermilk, and Steil
urged Lofgren “to take immediate,
affirmative steps to ensure that
this committee follows a fair pro-
cess for all parties involved in this
election contest and guarantees to
all parties involved that counsel
will provide only true, accurate,
and candid information to the
tribunal considering this contest,
this committee.”
A spokesman for Lofgren didn’t
respond to a request for comment
by press time, nor did spokesmen
for any of the other five Demo-
crats on the administration pan-
el. A spokesman for Elias couldn’t
be reached.
Congressional correspondent
Mark Tapscott can be reached at
mark.tapscott@epochtimes.nyc.
Miller said that
Trump’s platform
will ‘completely re-
define the game’ and
attract ‘tens of mil-
lions’ of users.
attention to Georgia on Monday
[March 22],” as there is a “big en-
dorsement coming.”
In an interview last month,
Trump said he’s “negotiating
with a number of people, and
there’s also the other option of
building your own [social me-
dia] site.” He added, “Because we
have more people than anybody.
I mean you can literally build
your own site.”
“I really wanted to be somewhat
quiet. They wanted me very much
on Parler, you know they had a
phony report that the man who
was in there didn’t—I mean just
the opposite, they really wanted
me on Parler,” Trump said.
Trump speculated that Parler
wouldn’t be able to handle the
amount of traffic he would bring
to the website. “Mechanically,
they can’t handle” the number of
users, he noted in the interview.
The former president provided
a lengthy interview last week,
saying that he hasn’t decided
whether he will run for the White
House in 2024.
“First thing is for us, we have
to see what we could do with the
House,” Trump said. “I think we
have a very good chance at taking
back the House. We were going
to lose 15–25 seats the last time,
[until] I got involved. I worked
very hard.”
 MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
Bayer Won’t
Appeal Roundup
Cancer Verdict
to Supreme Court
MATTHEW VADUM
Chemicals giant Bayer AG won’t
appeal a $20.5 million jury verdict
against it over Roundup, a weed-
killer containing glyphosate whose
use a California school grounds-
keeper said gave him cancer.
Dewayne Anthony Lee Johnson,
who worked for the Benicia Unified
School District, sued Monsanto Co.,
claiming he developed non-Hodg-
kin lymphoma after being soaked
in Roundup, which has been on
the market since 1976 and contains
glyphosate, the most popular her-
bicide in the United States. Bayer
acquired Roundup with its 2018
purchase of Monsanto.
The day of the accident, “the
sprayer broke, and I got drenched
in the [herbicide], I didn’t think that
much about it,” Johnson told Time
magazine in 2018.
“I washed up in the sink as best
I could and changed my clothes.
Later, I went home and took a good
long shower but I didn’t think, ‘Oh
my god, I’m going to die from this
stuff.’ Then I got a little rash. Then
it got worse and worse and worse.
At one point, I had lesions on my
face, on my lips, all over my arms
and legs.”
In addition to its use in gardening
and groundskeeping, glyphosate
DHS Secretary: Border Is Closed but Children
Won’t Be Expelled
CONTINUED FROM A1
encourage illegal immigration.
The Trump administration’s
Migrant Protection Protocol
(MPP) program has been touted
as the most effective measure
to deter illegal border crossings
and meritless asylum claims. But
Biden moved to rescind a series
of Trump-era policies starting on
Jan. 20, including MPP, and also
indicated that he supports ex-
panded pathways to citizenship
for illegal immigrants.
But Mayorkas said the border is
not open.
“In the meantime, we will not
expel into the Mexican desert, for
example, three orphaned chil-
dren whom I saw over the last
two weeks. We just won’t do that.
That’s not who we are,” he said on
March 21.
Under an anti-trafficking law,
unaccompanied minors from
Central America and other non-
contiguous countries haven’t
been turned back into Mexico
for decades.
We have a short-
term plan, a
medium-term
plan, and a long-
term plan, and
the president and
I have spoken to
this repeatedly.
Department of Homeland
Security Secretary Alejandro
Mayorkas
In February, Border Patrol ap-
prehended more than 100,000
illegal border crossers, almost
triple those of last February, ac-
cording to Customs and Border
Protection (CBP). More than 9,200
were unaccompanied minors,
almost 19,000 were individuals
within a family unit, and nearly
69,000 were single adults.
In the busiest sector for illegal
crossings, the Rio Grande Valley,
also is widely used by farmers in the
United States and Brazil on crops
genetically engineered to with-
stand its herbicidal effect.
Glyphosate is used to control a
variety of grasses and broadleaf
weeds. The chemical “is used on
about 298 million acres of agricul-
tural cropland every year and is
effective and affordable,” the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) stated in November 2020.
The EPA and European regulators
have found that glyphosate “poses
no significant cancer risks to the
general public, based on currently
approved, food-crop uses and the
levels of dietary exposure expected
in the general population (includ-
ing residues in drinking water and
beverages),” according to a 2019
article in Environmental Sciences
Europe.
Glyphosate has been deemed a
probable human carcinogen by the
International Agency for Research
on Cancer (IARC), which is part of
the World Health Organization.
In 2018, a San Francisco jury
unanimously ruled against the for-
mer Creve Coeur, Missouri-based
Monsanto, which Bayer Aktienge-
sellschaft, a multinational pharma-
ceutical and life sciences company
based in Leverkusen, Germany,
purchased and absorbed that same
Dozens of Central American migrants are expelled from the United States to
Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, by way of the Paso del Norte–Santa Fe international
bridge, from El Paso, Texas, on March 18, 2021.
Texas, more than 10,000 border
crossers were apprehended last
week, with over 2,000 on March
18 alone.
In an interview last week with
ABC News, Biden said the border
is closed and called on people not
to show up at the border.
“We are safely processing the
children who do come to our
border. We strongly urge, and the
message is clear, not to do so now.
I cannot overstate the perils of the
journey that they take,” Mayorkas
said.
Mayorkas told CNN later on
March 21 that the agency set up
three new facilities in the past
week.
“We established three new facili-
ties last week. ... We are working
on the system from beginning to
end. We are working around the
clock 24/7,” he said. “We have dealt
with surges in the past, and the
men and women of Department of
Homeland Security will succeed.”
At the same time, members of
the media have raised red flags
about how the administration is
handling press access. Getty Im-
ages photographer John Moore
over the weekend said that the
press has been provided “zero ac-
cess” to the border, and photogra-
phers have been forced to shoot
An employee adjusts Roundup products on a shelf at a store in San Rafael, Calif., on July, 9, 2018.
year for $63 billion.
The jury awarded Johnson $289
million, which a judge reduced to
$78 million.
The California Court of Appeals
further reduced the award to $20.5
million, and last year, the Califor-
nia Supreme Court refused to re-
view that decision. The Johnson
award set off a frenzy of lawsuits
over Roundup.
Bayer told reporters its decision
not to seek review from the nation’s
highest court reflected a “strategic
consideration” that a $25 million
judgment in a separate lawsuit,
Hardeman v. Monsanto, was better
suited for Supreme Court review,
Reuters reported. Bayer is currently
appealing that judgment to the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
The company is also appealing a
third jury verdict in California.
HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
photos from the Mexican side of
the border.
“I respectfully ask US Customs
and Border Protection to stop
blocking media access to their
border operations,” Moore wrote
on Twitter on March 19. “I have
photographed CBP under Bush,
Obama and Trump but now - zero
access is granted to media. These
long lens images taken from the
Mexican side.”
Meanwhile, there have been re-
ports that Border Patrol officials
have been muzzled by DHS of-
ficials about the situation at the
border.
The Epoch Times reported last
week about how the Mexican car-
tels are using wristbands on the il-
legal immigrants as a way to track
payments and border crossings.
If an individual can’t pay the re-
quired fee to cross, the cartel has
details of their family members
at home, as well as their contact
details in the United States.
On March 21, The Epoch Times
observed two van loads of mostly
family units being dropped off by
Border Patrol at a local NGO tent
facility in downtown McAllen,
Texas, across the road from the
Greyhound bus station. It’s un-
clear when the individuals crossed
the border.
“Bayer and Monsanto saw the
writing on the wall—the Johnson
verdict was grounded in science
and careful application of Califor-
nia law, and the Supreme Court was
never going to upset the verdict,”
Johnson lawyer Brent Wisner told
Reuters.
Last month, Bayer reached a $2
billion settlement that will cover
future legal claims in which par-
ties assert that Roundup has caused
cancer. Under the plan, Bayer will
provide $2 billion over four years.
Future individual claimants could
receive as much as $200,000 under
the deal.
Glyphosate will stay on the mar-
ket. Bayer has agreed to seek per-
mission from the EPA to provide
a reference link on product labels
so consumers can locate scientific
studies on the weedkiller.
US Government Should Further Limit
Investments in China: Panel
CONTINUED FROM A1
that’s based on publicly available
data shows that U.S. public and
private equity investments in Chi-
nese- and Hong Kong-domiciled
companies from 1992 through the
end of 2020 totaled $2.3 trillion in
market value.
U.S. investments in state-owned
enterprises totaled more than $152
billion, while investments in com-
panies that are tied to the People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) totaled near-
ly $55 billion, the analysis shows.
“These facts refute the notion that
prohibiting capital flows to China
makes no difference,” Nikakhtar
said. “Limiting capital will abso-
lutely slow the growth of the Chi-
nese military-industrial complex,
and our initiatives may even prompt
some of our allies to do the same.”
Former President Trump issued
an executive order in November
last year that prohibited investing in
companies with ties to the PLA. The
current ban covers 44 companies
identified by the Pentagon as com-
munist Chinese military companies
(CCMCs).
Nikakhtar suggested that the
U.S. Congress consider additional
amendments to the National De-
fense Authorization Act to further
improve the Pentagon’s CCMC
designation authority, by expand-
ing the definition of CCMCs.
In her testimony, she also stressed
the existing challenges in identify-
ing emerging technologies and
recommended that the U.S. govern-
ment “consider imposing licensing
requirements for only exports of
emerging technologies to entities
and/or countries that pose the most
significant national security risks.”
Freedom Weighted Index
Many of the CCMC companies are
publicly traded on stock exchanges
around the world. Through public
pension and retirement funds,
Americans are transferring wealth
to these blacklisted companies from
the United States.
Speaking at the USCC hearing,
Perth Tolle, founder of Life + Lib-
erty Indexes, said that most emerg-
ing markets indexes have nearly 40
percent direct allocation to China.
NATION | A3
JOSH EDELSON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Without admitting liability, Bayer
agreed in June 2020 to pay as much
as $10.9 billion to resolve tens of
thousands of lawsuits claiming
Roundup causes cancer, The Ep-
och Times previously reported. The
agreement should bring closure
to about three-quarters of current
Roundup litigation, Bayer said.
About $8.8 billion to $9.6 billion
will be paid to settle current law-
suits, while $1.25 billion will be set
aside for a separate class agreement
to cover potential future lawsuits.
Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer,
said at the time that the settlement
“resolves most current claims and
puts in place a clear mechanism
to manage risks of potential future
litigation.”
Zachary Stieber contributed
to this report.
The largest index providers, MSCI
and FTSE, have about 38 percent
and 43 percent China allocation,
respectively, in their emerging mar-
ket indexes. Many exchange-traded
funds (ETFs) and other passive in-
vestment funds benchmark their
investments against these major
indices.
Tolle’s company, which is an
emerging market index provider, is
the opposite because it’s freedom-
weighted and hence excludes some
of the autocratic countries such as
China. The company’s equity strat-
egy uses personal and economic
freedom metrics as primary factors
in the investment selection process.
“My company is here with the
private market solution for inves-
tors who care about these issues,”
Tolle said in her testimony, “but
we are a very small drop in a very
large, very deep ocean. And I can
say with a high degree of confidence
that policy solutions are needed if
investments in Chinese companies
are to be restricted in any meaning-
ful way.”
Tolle also disagreed with people
who claim that it’s impossible to do
emerging markets indexing without
China.
“It is possible. We do it, and ex-Chi-
na ETFs do it,” she said. “Emerging
markets have no shortage of secu-
rities that would easily meet mini-
mum size and liquidity require-
ments for index inclusion.”
Following Trump’s executive
order, the fund issuers and asset
managers asked index providers to
drop some of the blacklisted Chi-
nese companies from their indexes.
Restricting U.S. investment in
Chinese military companies “will
likely have minimal impact on the
underlying behavior of these firms,”
said Ryan LaFond, deputy chief in-
vestment officer at hedge fund Al-
gert Global.
Speaking at the hearing, LaFond
said there are better channels of ad-
dressing the problem.
“Rather than restricting invest-
ments, regulators could enhance
the disclosure requirements for
U.S.-listed firms and work with
global regulators to enhance dis-
closure requirements across the
globe,” he said.
A4 | NATION MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021

Murders, Shootings Skyrocketed in Portland

Following George Floyd’s Death
ALL PHOTOS BY NATHAN HOWARD/GETTY IMAGES
ZACHARY STIEBER

Shootings and murders signifi-

cantly increased in Portland, Or-
egon, starting in May 2020 and
have been plaguing the city since.
The death of George Floyd in po-
lice custody that month in Min-
neapolis triggered nationwide
protests and riots, with Portland
seeing escalating violence that
eventually culminated in nightly
clashes between federal officers
and insurgents.
Shootings rose 173 percent after
the riots, while murders spiked 255
percent in the months following
the unrest, according to Portland
police data analyzed by the Mary-
land Public Policy Institute.
Sean Kennedy, a visiting fellow at
the institute, told The Epoch Times
that he sees a clear connection be-
tween the spike in violence and
the demoralization, disempow-
erment, and defunding of police
following Floyd’s death.
“When the police stand down,
criminals step up is the simplest
way to put it,” Kennedy said.
Fifty-one excess homicides took
place in Portland between June
and February, according to his
analysis. According to the Portland
Police Bureau’s website, the city
has seen 104 shootings in January,
Portland police officers and Oregon state troopers arrest a man they say was armed with a rifle during a protest in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 4, 2020.
up from 50 in January 2020; and 75
in February, up from 38 in Febru-
ary 2020. in our community. This is the most
Rioters in Portland attacked pressing public safety issue we face
the U.S. courthouse shortly after
When the police right now.”
Floyd’s death, prompting the fed- stand down, crim- Wheeler said earlier this month,
eral government to send reinforce- inals step up is after Portland saw its 20th homi-
ments to protect the building. For cide of the year, that he will seek
weeks afterward, clashes between the simplest way $2 million to bolster the response
federal officers and rioters played to put it. to shootings and murders. An in-
out and made news around the terfaith group had written to city
world. Hundreds of insurgents Sean Kennedy, commissioners, including the
visiting fellow, Maryland
were arrested while several officers Public Policy Institute
mayor, requesting immediate ac-
were sued for alleged excessive use tion to address gun violence.
of force. “Cuts to the Police Bureau cre-
Federal and city officials eventu- investigating shootings specifi- ated a vacuum that undermined
ally reached a deal to scale back cally,” he said. public safety and the very com-
federal involvement and send Police officials, under the direc- munities whose voices the Coun-
state troopers to help local law en- tion of Portland Mayor and Police cil—and our community—seek to
forcement. Rioters and protesters Commissioner Ted Wheeler, a amplify,” they wrote.
turned their sights on other build- Democrat, announced last month Wheeler convened former and
ings, including police stations and the formation of the Enhanced current elected officials on March Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler speaks to the media at city hall in Portland, Ore.,
businesses. This continues to this Community Safety Team. 15 for a press conference to con- on Aug. 30, 2020.
day. The team, much like the disband- demn the continued riots and said
Police officials have said that ed Gun Violence Reduction Team, authorities are taking a more hard-
911 calls are going unanswered, is going to focus on gun violence. line stance against them, pointing
in some cases for hours, because “Our communities can’t wait,” to the kettling tactics police used
so many officers are tasked with Portland Deputy Chief Chris Da- against rioters who had begun
dealing with the unrest—a major vis said in a statement at the time. smashing windows.
concern in trying to respond to the “The mayor has made it clear that “Recent riotous activity and
spate of shootings. this is a top priority and that we destruction of property by self-
In an emailed statement, Port- need to start right away. So I think described anarchists do not sup-
land Sgt. Kevin Allen told The Ep- this is a step in the right direction port the calls for social justice
och Times that the causes of gun toward addressing this unaccept- and system reform,” Multnomah
violence and homicides are varied able gun violence we’re seeing in County Sheriff Mike Reese said
and complex. our city.” during the briefing. “They only
“There’s no one cause that we can Multnomah County District At- simply damage private property
point to. But it’s extremely concern- torney Mike Schmidt announced from businesses already suffering
ing. For months we have had addi- around the same time that his of- from the economic slowdown due
tional detectives assigned to the fice had initiated 26 cases related to COVID-19, and they disrupt vi-
Homicide Division to help solve to gun violence in the first 18 days tal public safety and government
these cases. Additional detectives of February, saying: “I am surging services that our community re-
have also been working out of the our resources in the district at- lies on. Responding to these events
Assault Detail. In fact, just recently torney’s office in response to the pulls away resources from public Portland police officers guard the Portland Police Bureau North Precinct amid
some were branched off to focus on escalating gun violence occurring safety priorities.” riots in Portland, Ore., on Aug. 10, 2020.

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 MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
Members of the University of Mary Washington women’s soccer team during a practice in Fredericksburg, Va., on April
16, 2015.
South Dakota’s Noem Sends
Transgender Sports Bill Back
to Legislature
CONTINUED FROM A1
of the bill to elementary and sec-
ondary school athletics, modify-
ing language about civil liability,
and removing a requirement that
requires schools to obtain annual
verification forms on a student’s
age, biological sex, and whether
the student had taken any perfor-
mance-enhancing drugs.
“The proposed revisions limit
House Bill 1217 to elementary and
secondary school athletics, which
are primarily conducted among
Former FDA Chief Says
Social Distancing Mandate
‘Wasn’t Based on Clear
Science’
JACK PHILLIPS
Former Food and Drug Adminis-
tration Commissioner Scott Got-
tlieb said that the six-foot social
distancing mandate that was em-
ployed across much of the United
States and the world to deal with
the CCP virus pandemic “wasn’t
based on clear science.”
“This six-foot distancing re-
quirement has probably been the
single costliest mitigation tactic
that we’ve employed in response
to COVID ... and it really wasn’t
based on clear science. ... We
should have re-adjudicated this
much earlier,” he said in an inter-
view with CNBC.
Amid the relaxation of CCP
(Chinese Communist Party) vi-
rus  guidelines—including one
from the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention (CDC) saying
it’s safe for schoolchildren to have
three-foot distancing—Gottlieb
Letlow Wins Louisiana Special House Election to Replace Late Husband
IVAN PENTCHOUKOV
Republican Julia Letlow, the
widow of a Louisiana congress-
man-elect who died last year
from complications related to the
CCP (Chinese Communist Party)
virus, won a special election on
March 20 to replace him in the
U.S. Congress.
Letlow topped 11 other con-
tenders to receive 65 percent of
the vote in the 5th Congressio-
nal District race, according to the
Louisiana Department of State.
“This is an incredible moment
and it is truly hard to put into
words,” Letlow said in a state-
South Dakota schools and at the
high school level are governed by
the South Dakota High School Ac-
tivities Association, a creature of
South Dakota law. The proposed
revisions will also remedy the
vague language regarding civil lia-
bility and the use of performance-
enhancing drugs,” Noem wrote in
her letter.
“Overall, these style and form
clarifications protect women
sports while also showing em-
pathy for youths struggling with
what they understand to be their
This six-foot dis-
tancing require-
ment has probably
been the single
costliest mitiga-
tion tactic.
Scott Gottlieb,
former commissioner, Food
and Drug Administration
suggested that masks may also be
safely removed.
“We now know that the vaccines
dramatically reduce your chance
of both contracting COVID and
becoming symptomatic to the
point where you are going to have
a bad outcome; we also know it re-
duces asymptomatic disease and
reduces transmission ... we are
seeing that in the data,” he said.
Gottlieb also was asked about
COURTESY OF JULIA LETLOW FOR CONGRESS
Julia Letlow, then-candidate for Lou-
isiana’s 5th Congressional District,
on Jan. 14, 2021.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
SDLEGISLATURE.GOV
Rep. Rhonda Milstead, Republican
member of the South Dakota House
of Representatives.
a public dispute between Dr. An-
thony Fauci, the head of the U.S.
National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, and Sen. Rand
Paul (R-Ky.), who also is a physi-
cian, about whether masks should
be worn after a recipient is vacci-
nated for the CCP virus, which
causes the disease COVID-19.
“You’re telling everyone to wear
a mask,” Paul told Fauci, who has
faced increasing pushback over
his statements in the press. “If
we’re not spreading the infection,
isn’t it just theater? You have the
vaccine and you’re wearing two
ment. “What was born out of
the terrible tragedy of losing my
husband, Luke, has become my
mission in his honor to carry the
torch and serve the good people
of Louisiana’s 5th District.
“I am humbled that you would
entrust me with the honor of your
vote and the privilege to serve
you in Congress. A simple thank
you doesn’t fully encapsulate the
depth of my gratitude.”
Former President Donald
Trump endorsed Letlow on
March 10 and boosted her again
during the election on March 20.
“Julia Letlow is outstanding and
so necessary to help save our Sec-
gender identity. But showing em-
pathy does not mean a biological-
ly-female-at birth woman should
face an unbalanced playing field
that effectively undermines the
advances made by women and for
women since the implementation
of Title IX in 1972.”
Noem’s decision to send the
bill back for changes has drawn
criticism from proponents of the
bill, who assert that the gover-
nor is backtracking or limiting
the bill because of pressure from
the South Dakota Chamber of
Commerce.
“Moments like this are impor-
tant. They tell you about the char-
acter of the person and whether
or not they are presidential. If you
can’t stand up to the chamber of
commerce, how the hell will you
stand up to China?” Terry Shil-
lings, president of the American
Principles Project Foundation,
said in a Twitter response to No-
em’s letter.
South Dakota Chamber of Com-
merce President David Owen told
The Federalist that his associa-
tion has been pressuring Noem
to veto the bill, arguing that the
bill could jeopardize the state’s
corporate interests.
“Employers view the workforce
as a place of inclusion,” Owen told
the publication. “They’ve made
it clear to us they won’t support
groups that help pass laws that
blindly discriminate in certain
areas.”
Noem’s communication office
didn’t respond to a  request for
comment by press time.
In a separate statement on March
20, Noem said she had been ex-
ploring “litigation to defend Title IX
and fairness in girls’ sports at ALL
levels,” since November last year.
“To pursue that strategy, I’m ask-
ing legislators to pass a new bill on
Veto Day, or I will call a special ses-
sion. Let’s protect girls’ sports & fix
the concerns with 1217,” she wrote.
In her letter, Noem said she
was limiting the bill to K–12 ath-
letics because she believes the
approach that HB 1217 “takes is
MICHAEL CIAGLO/GETTY IMAGES
masks, isn’t that theater?”
Fauci responded by saying that
“masks are not theater” and that
he “totally disagree[s]” with Paul’s
statement.
Gottlieb said “both [Paul and
Fauci] made valid points,” but
noted that “Senator Paul was
right, we need to see light at the
end of the tunnel and have guid-
ance that prescribes an environ-
ment where people can start doing
things again.”
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle
Walensky said on March 19 that
new studies have shown that in
ond Amendment, at the Border,
and for our Military and Vets.
Louisiana, get out and vote to-
day—she will never disappoint!”
the former president said in a
statement on March 20.
Luke Letlow died in December
2020—just days before he was to
be sworn into office—from a heart
attack that was “likely related to
thromboembolic phenomena
caused by COVID-19,” the doc-
tor in charge of the hospital where
he was being treated confirmed
in an email. He was 41.
COVID-19 is the disease caused
by the CCP virus.
Julia Letlow announced in
NATION | A5
unrealistic in the context of col-
legiate athletics.”
“South Dakota has shown that
our student-athletes can compete
with anyone in the country, but
competing on the national stage
means compliance with the na-
tional governing bodies that over-
see collegiate athletics. While
I certainly do not always agree
with the actions these sanction-
ing bodies take, I understand that
collegiate athletics requires such a
system—a fifty-state patchwork is
not workable,” she argued.
Noem expressed
concern that the
measure in its
current form con-
tains ‘vague and
overly broad lan-
guage’ that could
have ‘significant
unintended con-
sequences.’
She also explained that she was
worried that the bill would al-
low students to be sued for using
performance-enhancing drugs
and also creates “an unwork-
able administrative burden on
schools,” for collecting the annual
verification forms.
Rep. Rhonda Milstead, a Re-
publican member of the South
Dakota House of Representatives
and a prime sponsor of the bill,
previously told an audience at
the Conservative Political Action
Conference that it’s important to
protect women’s sports because
allowing biological males to com-
pete would send a message to girls
and females that “they aren’t im-
portant.” It would also send a mes-
sage to biological males who are
transgender that it is “OK to be
superior and almost to bully.”
“I don’t think that’s the message
we want to send to any child in this
country,” she said.
People stand in
freshly painted
circles, six feet
apart, as they
wait in line
outside a store
in Denver
on March
23, 2020.
schools, three-foot distancing
is sufficient if other health safe-
guards are in place. Studies have
found that there is a low transmis-
sion of the virus in schools.
“These include universal and
correct use of masks, physical
distancing, hand washing, and
respiratory etiquette, cleaning to
maintain healthy facilities and
diagnostic testing with rapid
and efficient contact tracing in
combination with isolation in
quarantine and in collaboration
with local health departments,”
Walensky told CNN.
January that she would run for
the seat vacated by her husband.
“I am running to continue the
mission Luke started—to stand
up for our Christian values, to
fight for our rural agricultural
communities, and to deliver
real results to move our state for-
ward,” she said in a statement at
the time.
Letlow’s victory marks the first
successful post-presidential
Trump endorsement of a con-
gressional candidate. The former
president has also endorsed Re-
publican candidates in five U.S.
Senate races and one other U.S.
House race.
A6 | NATION MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021

JOHANNES EISELE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

HUD Secretary
Endorses Democrats
at White House,
May Have Violated
Ethics Law
ZACHARY STIEBER

The newly sworn-in secretary of the De-

partment of Housing and Urban Devel-
opment may have violated an ethics law
by endorsing Democratic candidates in
a Senate race.
Housing Secretary Marcia Fudge, a
former U.S. representative, in her first
press conference in office, told reporters
on March 18 that she had two friends
who were considering running for the
Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Rob
Portman (R-Ohio).

Experts said Fudge’s re-

marks may have violated
the Hatch Act, which
bars federal employees
from using their posi-
tions while engaged in
political activity.
The New York Times building in New York on June 30, 2020.
“Tim Ryan, of course, is thinking about
it. I understand that Nan Whaley is think-
ing about it. I mean, I think we’re going to
put a good person in that race no matter
Federal Judge Claims Democrats Are Close
who we choose, but they’re both friends.
I think we have a good shot at it. I know
people have written off Ohio. I haven’t
to Controlling All Major News Outlets
written off Ohio. I believe we can win the
Senate race,” she said. ROBYN BECK/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Ryan is a U.S. representative, and Whal- CONTINUED FROM A1

ey is the mayor of Dayton, Ohio. Both are
Democrats.
Experts said the remarks may have
violated the Hatch Act, which bars fed-
eral employees from using their positions
while engaged in political activity.
“Under the Hatch Act, if you are giving
an official policy talk at the White House,
you cannot talk about the prospects for
the Democratic Party or Republican Party
in an Ohio Senate race. It’s completely in-
appropriate and would violate the Hatch
Act,” Richard Painter, the top White House
ethics lawyer during George W. Bush’s ad-
ministration, told the Washington Post.
Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens
for Responsibility and Ethics, said, “It is
entering a dangerous territory when an
official starts talking about a specific race
and about which party can win and about
their own party.”
The White House, the  Department
of Housing and Urban Development, and
the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) didn’t
immediately return requests by Te Epoc
Times for comment.
OSC is the office charged with reviewing
possible Hatch Act violations.
Fudge told The Epoch Times in an
emailed statement that she shouldn’t have
answered the question.
“When I was discussing getting relief to
the American People and the American
Rescue Plan from the briefing room on
Thursday, I answered a question from a
reporter related to Ohio politics,” she said.
“I acknowledge that I should have stuck
with my first instinct and not answered
the question. I take these things seriously
and I want to assure the American people
that I am focused on meeting the needs
of our country.”
OSC officials found that multiple offi-
cials in the Trump administration vio-
lated the Hatch Act, including former
adviser Kellyanne Conway.
economic consolidation) is the far greater
threat,” he said.
“Although the bias against the Republican
Party—not just controversial individuals—
is rather shocking today, this is not new; it
is a long-term, secular trend going back at
least to the ’70s. (I do not mean to defend
or criticize the behavior of any particular
politician). Two of the three most influen-
tial papers (at least historically), The New
York Times and The Washington Post, are
virtually Democratic Party broadsheets.
And the news section of The Wall Street
Journal leans in the same direction.
The increased power of
the press is so dangerous
today because we are very
Media gather in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 20, 2017.
close to one-party control
of these institutions. ble exceptions to the outlets he mentioned: Silberman was writing a partial dissent
Fox News, The New York Post, and the Jour- in the case of Liberian government offi-
Judge Laurence Silberman nal’s editorial page. cials Christiana Tah and Randolph Mc-
“It should be sobering for those concerned Clain versus Global Witness Publishing,
“The orientation of these three papers is about news bias that these institutions are an organization that investigates human
followed by The Associated Press and most controlled by a single man and his son. Will rights abuses.
large papers across the country (such as the a lone holdout remain in what is otherwise a “It should be borne in mind that the first
Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and Bos- frighteningly orthodox media culture? After step taken by any potential authoritarian
ton Globe). Nearly all television—network all, there are serious efforts to muzzle Fox or dictatorial regime is to gain control of
and cable—is a Democratic Party trumpet. News. And although upstart (mainly on- communications, particularly the delivery
Even the government-supported National line) conservative networks have emerged of news. It is fair to conclude, therefore,
Public Radio follows along.” in recent years, their visibility has been de- that one-party control of the press and
The news outlets mentioned didn’t im- cidedly curtailed by Social Media, either by media is a threat to a viable democracy. It
mediately return requests for comment. direct bans or content-based censorship,” may even give rise to countervailing ex-
The judge also expressed concern about he wrote. tremism,” Silberman said.
the influence that Big Tech wields over The uniformity of news bias has a political “The First Amendment guarantees a free
how news is distributed, referencing how impact, the judge said, pointing to author press to foster a vibrant trade in ideas. But
Twitter limited the spread of a New York Tim Groseclose’s 2011 book “Left Turn.” a biased press can distort the market-
Post article about President Joe Biden’s The George Mason University professor place. And when the media has proven
son Hunter Biden. said in his book that he found that the way its willingness—if not eagerness—to so
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey later told law- outlets report more favorably on Demo- distort, it is a profound mistake to stand
makers that what happened was a mistake. crats aids the party’s candidates by 8 to 10 by unjustified legal rules that serve only
Silberman added that there are few nota- percent in a typical election. to enhance the press’ power.”

DANIEL SLIM/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Royal Caribbean to Accept will inevitably evolve over time.”

Celebrity Cruises, which is
that in Florida, I think that that’s
more than just a private decision.”

Only Vaccinated Passengers owned by Royal Caribbean, also

announced it will restart cruis-
The World Health Organization
(WHO) has urged countries not to

on Next Caribbean Cruise es in June that leave from St.

JACK PHILLIPS
Passengers who travel aboard
Royal Caribbean International
and its subsidiary, Celebrity
Cruises, will have to be vaccinated
for the CCP virus when cruises re-
sume in June, officials said.
Royal Caribbean will provide
cruises to the Bahamas and Mexi-
co in June, the company said.
“Travelers looking ahead to
their summer vacations can book
their roundtrip cruise as soon as
Wednesday, March 24 and set sail
starting June 12. The new itiner-
aries departing through August,
which will sail with vaccinated
crew, will be available to adult
guests who are fully vaccinated
against COVID-19,” the cruise op-
erator said in a statement.
Passengers who are under the
age of 18 have to test negative for
the CCP virus, the release added.
“The vaccines are clearly a
game-changer for all of us, and
with the number of vaccinations
and their impact growing rapidly,
we believe starting with cruises
for vaccinated adult guests and
crew is the right choice,” Michael
Bayley, president and CEO of
Royal Caribbean, stated. “As we
move forward, we expect this re-
quirement and other measures
Maarten.
It isn’t clear if the company will
expand the vaccination require-
ment for future cruises.
The announcement comes as
some companies and elected
officials have posited COVID-19
“vaccine passports” for air travel
or other services. Some Repub-
licans and civil liberties propo-
nents have raised red flags about
such measures, saying they would
essentially create separate classes
of citizens.
Former UK Prime Minister
Tony Blair recently stated that
the “world is moving in this direc-
tion,” adding that he couldn’t see
another way of this,” in reference
to so-called immunity passports.
A Royal Caribbean International
fleet in the Port of Miami on Dec.
23, 2020.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last
week said  that “vaccine pass-
ports” would be a “terrible idea”
for his state.
“We are definitely not going to
require anything from the state’s
perspective. That is totally off the
table,” DeSantis, a Republican,
told reporters on March 18. “If I
have businesses that want to do
use a CCP virus vaccine passport
system due to how vaccines are
being rolled out and distributed
worldwide. And meanwhile, CCP
mouthpiece the Global Times
suggested earlier in March that
the Chinese regime should build
an international “vaccine pass-
port” system.
“Chinese experts noted on
Tuesday that China can help by
sharing its experience with and
provide technical support to the
WHO to organize the issue,” the
Global Times wrote. “China is the
most experienced country in us-
ing a health code system in the
world, while the WHO is the most
proper organizer for the matter to
ensure independence, fairness,
and data security.”
 MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
Michigan Pizzeria Owner Arrested for Defying State
COVID-19 Restrictions
JANITA KAN
A restaurant owner in Michigan was
arrested on March 19 for defying
state CCP virus pandemic restric-
tions and ignoring a court order, ac-
cording to the state attorney general.
Marlena Pavlos-Hackney, owner
of Marlena’s Bistro and Pizzeria in
Holland, Michigan, was taken into
custody following a traffic stop for
failing to comply in a civil case filed
by the Michigan Department of Ag-
riculture and Rural Development.
State officials said she kept her
restaurant open for indoor dining
when it was banned, didn’t comply
with capacity limits, and didn’t en-
force any mask-wearing rules amid
the pandemic. The department then
suspended her food license on Jan.
20, but she remained open, accord-
ing to a statement.
The small-business owner drew
media attention last week over her
decision to resist the state orders.
A judge has characterized her ac-
tions as “selfish,” adding that she
was putting the community at risk
in the middle of a pandemic.
Pavlos-Hackney said her ac-
tions were intended to stand up
against authoritarianism and to
safeguard individual liberty and
freedoms. The 55-year-old had fled
communism in her home coun-
try of Poland in 1983 and arrived
in America in 1988. She became a
citizen of the United States in 1992
and opened her business in Michi-
gan as she worked toward achieving
the American dream.
“We the people, small-business
owners, like I told you, have to
fight. I will fight for freedom [for]
the American people. And I en-
courage everyone, business own-
ers, other people—stand up and
fight for your freedom before it’s
going to be taken away,” Pavlos-
Hackney told Fox News’ Tucker
Carlson last week.
In a separate interview with Glenn
Beck, she told the radio host that
she’s staying strong because she
refuses to let the government “in-
Michigan
County Votes
to Hand
Count Ballots
in Upcoming
Primary,
Eschewing
Machines
ZACHARY STIEBER
Commissioners in a Michigan
county late last week voted unani-
mously to hand count every bal-
lot cast in an upcoming primary,
avoiding the use of Dominion Vot-
ing Systems machines.
Antrim County commission-
ers voted against a proposal from
county clerk Sheryl Guy to appor-
tion $5,080 to reinstall election
management system software on
a computer and tabulators for the
county, which would enable use
of the Dominion machines in the
May 4 primary.
Guy wanted to pay Pro V&V, a
testing and verification firm, to up-
date the management system. She
said officials can’t use the equip-
ment because of a forensic audit
done as part of a court case that
was brought against the county,
alleging fraud in the 2020 election.
The plaintiff pointed to how the
county initially reported a victory
for candidate Joe Biden before flip-
ping the results in President Don-
ald Trump’s favor by thousands of
votes, citing a human error.
Commissioners expressed con-
cern that reprogramming the ma-
chines and then using them would
violate a judge’s order in the case,
Bailey v. Antrim County.
JOHN AGAR/THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS VIA AP
(Left) Small-business owner Marlena Pavlos-Hackney talks on the phone at her restaurant Marlena’s Bistro & Pizzeria, in Holland, Mich., on March 18, 2021.
Michigan State Police arrested Pavlos-Hackney on March 19, 2021. (Right) Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel speaks during a news conference in Lan-
sing, Mich., on March 5, 2020.
timidate me or put fear in me.”
“I’m going to keep fighting for
American freedom and my con-
stitutionally protected rights,” she
said.
Pavlos-Hackney had initially
closed her restaurant for about three
months in compliance with state
orders after the pandemic hit, she
told Beck. But she decided to reopen
after she felt Gov. Gretchen Whit-
mer had “overextended her power.”
Pavlos-Hackney felt that the orders
resembled edicts of authoritarian
governments that she was familiar
with, according to a GoFundMe
page opened in support of the res-
taurant owner.
“So I decided, we, the small-busi-
ness owners, have to take control
against this tyranny. Because we the
people have to have jobs to be able
to survive,” she said. “Government
and government entities have job
security because they are a service.
Ulparita ssimaio. Nequodit offictis nectam
Hand counting,
which was eventu-
ally agreed upon,
appears to put the
county in viola-
tion of state rules.
“If we use them, we have to delete
them, which is contradictory to a
court order,” Commissioner Terry
VanAlstine said before the vote.
“We can’t delete the data that’s on
the machines. If you use the cur-
rent machines, they need to be
swiped, they need to be cleared.
And we can’t do that.”
That left commissioners with
several options: approving the
purchase of new machines, esti-
mated to cost around $150,000;
asking the court to allow the use
of the machines in the upcom-
ing primary; or resorting to hand
counting the ballots.
“We need to buy these new ma-
chines and stop playing games,”
Commissioner Christian Marcus
said at one point.
Hand counting, which was even-
I encourage
everyone, busi-
ness owners,
other people—
stand up and
fight for your
freedom before
it’s going to be
taken away.
Marlena
Pavlos-Hackney,
restaurant owner
JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
tually agreed upon, appears to put
the county in violation of state rules,
but there was hope that state offi-
cials would understand the unique
issues the county is dealing with.
“The state says we can’t. But let
them come and tell us that we
can’t, given our circumstance,” Ed
Boettcher told colleagues. “We’re
going to say we’re going to hand
count them and let the state tell
us we can’t.”
There was also discussion about
borrowing tabulators from the
state or renting some from Elec-
tionSource, a Grand Rapids-based
election equipment and service
provider.
“But I don’t want to do that unless
I’m forced to,” Guy said.
The motion included directing
the county lawyer to draft a letter to
the state alerting it to the decision.
“The ballots will be exactly as
they are now. We’re just going to
count them manually instead of
with the machine. But we want to
make sure they’re going to certify
it,” Boettcher said.
Requests for comment to Do-
minion, Pro V&V, and the office of
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson
weren’t immediately returned.
NATION | A7
DAVID EGGERT/AP PHOTO
But we the people have to fight for effort had raised nearly $150,000
our existence and keep working. So for Pavlos-Hackney’s legal fees as
I decide they are not going to close of early March 21.
me down.” “America is the Land of the Free
An administrative judge in Feb- and the Home of the Brave, and
ruary ruled to continue the sus- together with like-minded Patriots
pension of Pavlos-Hackney’s food like YOU, we can overcome and beat
license and a warrant for her arrest back Socialism!” the description on
was subsequently issued. She was the GoFundMe page states.
given until March 18 to turn herself Meanwhile, the community orga-
in but failed to do so. nized a “road rally” on March 21 in
“This owner has continued to will- support of Pavlos-Hackney.
fully violate the state’s food laws, “We will also have a ROAD RALLY
public health orders, and the order taking place all over the city. The
of the court—a dangerous act that Lakeshore REVOLUTION from we
may have exposed dozens of diners the people! Please tell everybody its
and employees to the virus follow- time to DEFEND OUR REPUBLIC
ing the discovery that one of Mar- against the over reach of state (and
lena’s customers tested positive for local) government,” the group said
the virus within two days of eating on Facebook.
there,” Michigan Attorney General Pavlos-Hackney currently re-
Dana Nessel said. mains in Ingham County Jail, where
Pavlos-Hackney has since re- she has been denied bail until she
ceived a wave of support from the agrees to follow judge orders, ac-
community. The crowdfunding cording to online arrest records.
Louisiana Special Election
to Replace Biden Appointee
Heads to Runoff
IVAN PENTCHOUKOV
The special election to fill the Louisiana U.S.
House seat vacated by Democratic Rep. Cedric
Richmond is heading to a runoff after none of
the contending Democrats secured enough
votes on March 20 for an outright victory.
Democratic state Sens. Troy Carter and Karen
Peterson will face off in April; Carter received
36 percent of the vote to Peterson’s 23 percent,
according to the Louisiana Department of State.
A total of at least seven Democrats and several
Republicans competed for the Bayou State’s 2nd
Congressional District seat. Richmond left his
post to serve as a White House adviser under
Election workers President Joe Biden.
check tapes The 2nd Congressional District, which in-
from voting cludes most of New Orleans, has been one of
machines to the safest Democratic districts for more than a
verify that century. From 1891 until the 1960s, Democrats
they contain kept a hold over the district through voter sup-
the correct pression and by disenfranchising black voters,
signatures after
polls closed
including through poll taxes and subjective lit-
eracy tests. After regaining their franchise in the
in the general
1960s, black voters began to back Democrats.
election, at Ford
Field in Detroit The district has been majority-black since 1984.
on Nov. 3, 2020. The only Republican to hold the seat since
1891 was Rep. Joseph Cao from 2009 to 2011.
Richmond defeated Cao and had served in
Congress since 2011.
Before joining the White House, Richmond
had endorsed Carter.
Richmond was named the co-chair of the
Biden transition team in September 2020. Biden
appointed Richmond to served as the director of
the White House Office of Public Engagement
and a senior White House adviser.
During his tenure in Congress, Richmond
served as the chairman of the Congressional
Black Caucus from 2017 to 2019.
The Louisiana special election on March 20
also included a contest for the 5th Congres-
sional District seat left vacant by the death of
Republican Rep.-elect Luke Letlow. Letlow’s
widow, Julia Letlow, also a Republican, won
the special election with 65 percent of the vote.
Letlow was endorsed by former President Don-
ald Trump.
A8 | NATION
US Opening New Facility to Hold up
to 2,000 Unaccompanied Minors
ZACHARY STIEBER
The United States is set to open an-
other facility to deal with the surge
in illegal immigrants, President Joe
Biden’s administration announced
March 20.
The new facility is in Pecos, Texas.
It will initially hold about 500
children, with the potential to ex-
pand to 2,000, according to the De-
partment of Health and Human
Services’ Office of Refugee Reset-
tlement (ORR).
ORR officials are
struggling to han-
dle the influx of
unaccompanied
minors crossing the
southern border
since Biden took of-
fice in January, and
have had to open or
reopen a number of
detention centers.
The ORR is legally required to
care for unaccompanied minors
until they’re united with a sponsor,
typically a parent or relative, while
their cases are processed.
The Target Lodge Pecos North
property will house illegal immi-
grants in solid structures. Addi-
tional semi-permanent structures
may be added, although the office
tries to place children in solid ones.
Children who illegally cross the
About 1 in 6 US Adults Are Fully Vaccinated
Against CCP Virus
ZACHARY STIEBER
Approximately 43 million adults
in the United States have been
fully vaccinated against the CCP
virus, the disease that causes
COVID-19, according to newly
updated federal data.
As of March 20, nearly 43,036,820
adults had been fully vaccinat-
ed, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC). That’s equal to about 13
percent of the U.S. population, or
about 1 in 6 adults in the country.
Three COVID-19 vaccines have
been authorized for use by drug
regulators in the U.S. Two require
separate doses spaced several
weeks apart.
Of those fully vaccinated, 22.3
million are 65 years of age or
older, which is 40 percent of the
elderly population.
The elderly and those with un-
derlying serious medical con-
ditions are most vulnerable to
experiencing severe symptoms
from COVID-19, according to
the CDC.
In addition to those who have
been fully vaccinated, roughly
36 million have received one
dose but not the second. That
includes nearly 15 million in the
upper age group.
The federal government and
its partners have delivered more
border without an adult will be
sent to the facility when the site
is ready to safely receive them,
ORR said in a statement. The site
will be used as a stop before unac-
companied minors are transferred
to ORR shelters, “where children
receive educational, medical,
mental health, and recreational
services until they can be unified
with families or sponsors without
undue delay.”
ORR officials are struggling to
handle the influx of unaccompa-
nied minors crossing the southern
border since Biden took office in
January, and have had to open
or reopen a number of detention
centers.
“While ORR has worked to build
up its licensed bed capacity to
almost 13,500 beds, additional
capacity is urgently needed to
manage both enhanced COV-
ID-19 mitigation strategies and
the increasing numbers of [unac-
companied minors] referrals from
DHS,” the agency said.
Department of Homeland Secu-
rity (DHS) agents apprehend those
who illegally cross the southern
border from Mexico.
HSS is utilizing both short- and
long-term options to deal with the
surge, including expanding capac-
ity, reducing the time it takes to
unify a child with a sponsor, and
establishing emergency sites to
decrease overcrowding in other
facilities.
In one example, the agency
reached an agreement with of-
ficials in Dallas to house male
teenagers in a convention center
for up to 90 days.
CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
than 156.7 million doses. Of
these, most, or 121.4 million, have
been administered.
The vast majority of the doses
delivered and administered are
from Moderna or Pfizer-BioN-
Tech, which require two doses.
The Johnson & Johnson one-
shot vaccine makes up 2.1 mil-
lion of the doses administered,
with another 2.1 million distrib-
uted but not yet injected. Regu-
lators authorized that vaccine
last month.
Only Pfizer’s vaccine is cur-
rently allowed to be used for
anyone under the age of 18. It
is authorized for use in 16- and
17-year-olds.
Only about 57,000  16- and
17-year-olds have been fully vac-
cinated.
President Joe Biden, before en-
tering office, announced a goal
of getting 100 million shots ad-
ministered in his first 100 days
in office. That was achieved by
day 60. Biden has said he believes
the United States can double his
original goal.
Critics note that the trajectory
of doses administered was al-
ready heading toward 1 million
per day on average before the
president was sworn in.
“Eight weeks ago, only 8 percent
of seniors, those most vulnerable
to COVID-19, had received a vac-
The U.S. government also
opened or reopened temporary
holding facilities in Midland and
Carrizo Springs. Both facilities
have dealt with COVID-19 out-
breaks, while the former was
ordered to stop using water for
human consumption because of
integrity concerns.
The surge in unaccompanied
minors stems from the Biden ad-
ministration changing protocol
from the Trump era. Under Title
42 powers, officials in the previ-
ous administration expelled all
A woman receives
a Moderna
COVID-19 vaccine
at a church in
Landover, Md., on
March 18, 2021.
cination,” Biden said in a speech
at the White House last week.
“Today, 65 percent of people aged
65 or older have received at least
one shot, and 36 percent are fully
vaccinated. And that’s key—be-
cause this is a population that
represents 80 percent of the well
over 500,000 COVID-19 deaths
that have occurred in America.
“Tomorrow, we will hit 100
million doses our administra-
tion has administered. But I’ve
always said: That’s just the floor.
We will not stop until we beat
this pandemic. Next week, I will
announce our next goal to put
shots in arms.”
Fully vaccinated people can es-
chew wearing masks and social
distancing when gathering with
others who are fully vaccinated,
or people who aren’t but who “are
at low risk for severe COVID-19
disease,” according to the CDC.
PETER CZIBORRA/REUTERS
A vial of the Oxford-AstraZeneca
COVID-19 vaccine in Basingstoke,
England, on Feb. 4, 2021.
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
illegal border crossers. The Biden
administration is still expelling
some crossers but is allowing any
minors without adults to enter the
country. Biden also ordered a halt
to the Remain in Mexico program,
which made asylum seekers wait
in Mexico until their claims could
be heard.
Biden administration officials
told reporters in a call on March
18 that Customs and Border Pro-
tection had 4,500 unaccompanied
minors in custody while ORR had
over 9,500.
Pentagon Chief
Hints at Sanctions
If India Buys
Russian Missile
System
TOM OZIMEK
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin urged
India to reconsider its potential
purchase of a Russian missile sys-
tem, hinting to the longtime U.S.
ally that the move could trigger
U.S. sanctions.
“We certainly urge all our allies
and partners to move away from
Russian equipment ... and really
avoid any kind of acquisitions that
would trigger sanctions on our be-
half,” Austin said in New Delhi on
March 20, responding to a question
from a reporter about India’s plans
to buy the Russian S-400 anti-air-
craft weapon system.
The thorny issue of India’s planned
purchase of the S-400 was widely
expected to come up during Aus-
tin’s visit to India, where he met his
Indian counterpart, Defence Min-
ister Rajnath Singh.
The pair discussed ways to expand
military engagement between their
respective countries, underscoring
the strengthening defense ties be-
tween the United States and India,
which are both worried about China
flexing its military muscle in the
Indo-Pacific region.
Austin said that, while he and
Sing discussed the missile defense
system, they didn’t discuss poten-
tial sanctions.
“We are aware of the fact that they
have expressed interest in acquiring
the system,” Austin said, adding that
they had not “acquired an S-400 sys-
tem yet, so there would be no reason
for sanctions to be on the table.”
The United States opposes India’s
purchase of the S-400, with U.S. of-
ficials on the record as saying that
the Russian system can be used to
collect intelligence on American
systems if both exist side by side in
a given country’s arsenal.
The United States and India have
steadily ramped up their military
relationship in recent years and
signed a string of defense deals and
deepened military cooperation. In
2019, the two sides concluded de-
fense deals worth over $3 billion.
Illegal aliens cross the Rio Bravo river in
El Paso, Texas, on March 19, 2021.
JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ/REUTERS
Senators who visited the border
last week decried the conditions
they witnessed and urged the ad-
ministration to take action.
“The number of unaccompa-
nied children arriving at our
southern border is at a level we
have never seen before,” Sen.
Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.)
said in a tweet. “My visit to a mi-
grant children’s facility in El Paso
yesterday underscores the need
to unify our message, secure our
border, [and] fix the humanitar-
ian crisis we are facing.”
Bilateral defense trade increased
from near zero in 2008 to $15 bil-
lion in 2019.
At the meeting between Austin
and Singh, the two countries agreed
to deepen defense cooperation, in-
telligence sharing, and logistics.
“India is an increasingly impor-
tant partner in rapidly shifting in-
ternational dynamics. I reaffirm our
commitment to a comprehensive
forward-looking defense partner-
ship with India as a central pillar
of our approach to the Indo-Pacific
region,” Austin said.
The Pentagon chief’s visit to New
Delhi is the first visit to India by
a top member of President Joe
Biden’s administration. It follows
a meeting on March 12 between
leaders of Australia, India, Japan,
and the United States, which to-
gether make up the four Indo-Pa-
cific nations known as the Quad.
The Quad is seen as a counter-
weight to China, which critics say
is flexing its military muscle in the
South China Sea, East China Sea,
and Taiwan Strait and along its
northern border with India.
The U.S.–India security part-
nership enjoys strong bipartisan
support in Washington, and it has
grown significantly since the early
2000s even though trade agree-
ments have been a sticking point.
But in recent years, relations be-
tween the countries have been
driven by a convergence of interests
to counter China.
More recently, India drew closer
to the United States following its
months-long military standoff with
China along its disputed border
in eastern Ladakh, where deadly
clashes erupted last year. Tensions
between the nuclear-armed Asian
giants have eased after the two
countries pulled back troops from
one area of contention.
The military tensions between
the two neighbors at that time had
stoked fears of a larger confronta-
tion.
Pentagon Press Secretary John
Kirby said in a readout from Austin
and Singh’s meeting that “both sides
exchanged perspectives on shared
challenges confronting the region
and committed to further strength-
en their broad-ranging and robust
defense cooperation.”
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
 MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
Beijing Delicately Navigating Another
Housing Bubble
FAN YU
News Analysis
Real estate is one market that
proved to be resilient during
2020 as the CCP virus pandemic
ravaged the world.
The Chinese real estate market
has been especially buoyed by
high prices and booming sales.
The official National Bureau
of Statistics data showed that
property sales exceeded $2.6 tril-
lion last year after a brief pause
initially because of the CCP
(Chinese Communist Party)
virus pandemic.
This trend has been encour-
aged by years of loose monetary
policy out of CCP headquarters
pre-pandemic. While the re-
gime in Beijing has been more
conservative than the United
States in its stimulus programs
during the pandemic, the Chi-
nese economy has nominally
been healthier rebounding
from the crisis.
The resulting price surges have
increasingly raised the specter
of a massive housing bubble,
especially among Tier 1 cities
such as Shanghai, Beijing, and
Guangzhou.
To be clear, the overheating
market has mostly been an issue
among Tier 1 or Tier 2 cities, and
in locations near high-quality
schools and good transportation
options. Elsewhere in China, in
lower-tier cities, rural areas, and
certain cities in the Northeast,
there are swaths of homes and
apartments sitting empty.
The housing bubble also has
given rise to a surge in debt, both
from consumers as well as prop-
erty developers. Overall Chinese
debt at the end of 2020 reached
350 percent of the country’s GDP.
In many ways, the Chinese
housing market is a creation
of the CCP. The Party needed
a way for its citizens to gain
wealth—aside from the domes-
tic stock market, which has its
own issues—and the property
market has been a critical source
of provincial and local revenues
arising from taxes and fees.
But Beijing has been careful
to manage the bubble. It can’t
afford to burst the bubble as the
wealth destruction, both from a
Chinese Media Spin US–China
Spat in Alaska as Diplomatic
Win for Beijing
EVA FU
China’s state-controlled media
are on the offensive after top Biden
administration officials and their
Chinese counterparts clashed
during their first in-person talks
in Alaska.
The two-day meeting, cover-
ing an array of issues that have
strained relations between the
two countries, got off to a rocky
start on March 18, with Chinese
officials reacting angrily to criti-
cisms of the Chinese Commu-
nist Party’s (CCP’s) human rights
abuses and economic coercion.
Lashing out over what they de-
scribed as “unwarranted criti-
cisms,” the Chinese diplomats
aired bitter denunciation that
veered off the usual diplomatic
proceedings, extending the allot-
ted two-minute opening remark
for each speaker to a diatribe of
roughly 20 minutes. With the
translation, what was initially
intended to be an eight-minute
photo-op went on for more than
an hour.
Wang Yi, China’s foreign min-
ister and state councilor, particu-
larly took issue with the United
States’ sanctioning of 24 Chinese
officials over Beijing’s clampdown
on freedom in Hong Kong on the
eve of the talks.
Senior Chinese foreign policy of-
ficial Yang Jiechi said, “The United
A woman crosses a bridge near apartment and office complexes in Beijing on Dec. 1, 2020.
housing and a stock market per-
spective, would undermine the
stability of its rule. So it needs
to slowly inflate the market in
a controlled manner, by loos-
ening and tightening liquidity
going into the real estate market
as needed.
Currently, China is in one of
those real estate “tightening”
phases.
China regulates real estate
sales more closely than the
United States. There are laws
governing every facet of home
buying—how many homes a
family can purchase, where
they can purchase, and how the
purchases must be funded.
In December, regulators at the
Central Economic Work Confer-
ence, which sets the agenda for
China’s economic development
path, introduced caps for loans
related to housing, mortgage,
and real estate development at
domestic banks.
In China’s biggest real estate
submarkets, authorities are
clamping down on liquidity
illegally flowing into real estate.
The recent curbs remind one of
a particular quote from Chinese
leader Xi Jinping from 2017, that
homes “are for living in, not for
speculation.”
States does not have the qualifica-
tion to say that it wants to speak to
China from a position of strength.”
While President Joe Biden on
March 19 expressed pride in his
team for how they handled the
matter, mainland-controlled
media have uniformly cheered
on their officials’ confrontational
approach, while snickering at the
United States.
Zhao Lijian, a Chinese foreign
ministry spokesperson, insisted
at a March 19 press conference
that the U.S. side “failed to keep
to the set time limit and provoked
disagreements first,” thus bring-
ing a strong “smell of gunpowder
and drama” to the meeting—a
narrative that other Chinese me-
dia soon amplified.
State-run People’s Daily pro-
moted red posters featuring ag-
gressive Chinese remarks from
the meeting in both English and
Chinese. Reference News, a news
site under the state newspaper
Xinhua, said the United States
“made an empty show” and “ex-
posed its lack of confidence” by
visiting other allies prior to the
meeting to “create pressure.”
Posturing in Battle
U.S. State Department deputy
spokesperson Jalina Porter told
reporters on March 19 that the
Biden administration is aware
that Beijing’s “exaggerated dip-
Financial institutions in the
southern city of Shenzhen were
told by regulators to investigate
“the flow of business loan funds
into property,” according to a
March 16 Yicai Global report.
Authorities were concerned that
some individuals falsified busi-
ness loan applications to funnel
proceeds into real estate.
Similar mandates were issued
by local regulators in Beijing,
Guangzhou, and Shanghai to
crack down on consumer and
business loan proceeds going
into real estate improperly.
Interest rates on consumer
and business loans were cut
during the pandemic to assist
small businesses reeling from
demand shocks as a result of
widespread lockdown.
China also fears that loose
monetary policy in the United
States and other nations could
amplify its domestic housing
bubble. Former Chinese finance
minister Lou Jiwei warned that
the rapid expansion of the Feder-
al Reserve’s balance sheet could
have negative spillover effects on
China’s macroeconomy, accord-
ing to a policy report published
by the journal Public Finance
Research earlier this month.
The premise is that as the
lomatic presentations in front of
the media are aimed at a domestic
audience.” She said the depart-
ment will continue to “lay out our
common interests and principles
from the United States.”
Some critics, however, believe
that the heated comments should
wake Americans up to the funda-
mental differences between the
two political powers.
The public blowup in Alaska is
a “serious provocation,” signaling
that “in the future, the CCP will
no longer abide by the rules set by
the United States,” said Wang He,
a Chinese political affairs com-
mentator.
The public blowup
in Alaska is a ‘seri-
ous provocation,’
He said.
The fact that the Biden admin-
istration remains eager to seek
cooperation with the Chinese
regime on areas such as climate
change in the face of the fiery
exchange plays right into the re-
gime’s hands and would make
the U.S. side lose its advantage,
he wrote in a commentary for The
Epoch Times.
“[The] CCP is more cunning and
evil than most people can imag-
ine. This round of talks was the
CCP’s way of testing the waters,
and now, it has a clear picture
of the United States’ intentions,”
Wang said.
Following the meeting, Chinese
media have trumpeted a growing
GREG BAKER/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
United States and other foreign
markets become unattractive
due to high inflation or cur-
rency devaluation, investors
may direct their funds to China
and potentially pouring into its
domestic real estate market.
In a regulatory action focused
on personal events, authori-
ties in certain cities (including
Shanghai) are restricting home
purchases from individuals who
have recently divorced.
That’s due to local laws in
Shanghai and Beijing, where
each family is only permitted to
purchase two properties maxi-
mum, a restriction imposed in
recent years to control housing
prices in these cities. Local me-
dia report that such restrictions
caused many couples to tempo-
rarily file for divorce so they can
purchase two homes each as
individuals, with the intention
to remarry later and effectively
“grandfather” their housing pur-
chases. Authorities are investi-
gating closing that loophole.
“We’re all very optimistic that
property prices in this area will
continue to grow ... a divorce is
the most efficient way to get to
our (investment) goal,” a man
named Wu Xin said in a report
on the Sixth Tone website.
sense of assertiveness, with Sina,
a Chinese news portal, declaring,
“This first-round battle made a
good play and is the prelude to a
new stage of China–U.S. relation-
ship.”
Hu Xijin, chief editor of the na-
tionalist state-run tabloid Global
Times, said the fallout should
teach the United States and its al-
lies to be more respectful toward
the regime.
“The Chinese delegation has
shown the few U.S. allies how Chi-
na is dealing with the U.S. China
has publicly refuted the U.S., and
for those U.S. lackeys who try to
bite China, please behave,” he
wrote in an op-ed.
The regime, following the con-
clusion of the meeting, has con-
tinued to assert that its affairs in
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and
Tibet are “untouchable red lines”
and that the United States should
not interfere.
Gordon Chang, a U.S.-based
China expert and the author of
“The Coming Collapse of China,”
challenged the approach of U.S.
lawmakers who have so far re-
mained supportive of maintain-
ing good relations with Beijing.
“Policymakers say China is too
big to shun. No. China is too bel-
ligerent, too dangerous, too evil to
deal with. Didn’t we just see that in
Alaska?” Chang wrote on Twitter
on March 21.
“There is, after the Alaska Meet-
ing, no longer any point talking to
China’s regime. Beijing told us in
no uncertain terms that we must
accept its barbarism, aggression,
and criminality. What more do we
need to hear?”
CHINA | A9
Philippines Says
220 Chinese Boats
Have Encroached
in South China Sea
MANILA, Philippines—The Phil-
ippine defense chief on March
21 demanded that more than
200 Chinese vessels he said were
manned by militias leave a South
China Sea reef claimed by Manila,
saying their presence was a “pro-
vocative action of militarizing the
area.”
“We call on the Chinese to stop
this incursion and immediately re-
call these boats violating our mari-
time rights and encroaching into
our sovereign territory,” defense
minister Delfin Lorenzana said.
Authorities said the Philip-
pines coast guard had reported
that about 220 vessels, believed
to be manned by Chinese mari-
time militia personnel, were seen
moored on March 7 at Whitsun
Reef, which Manila calls Julian
Felipe Reef.
Foreign minister Teodoro Loc-
sin, when asked whether he would
file a diplomatic protest over the
boats, told a journalist on Twitter:
“Only if the generals tell me. In my
watch, foreign policy is the fist in
the iron glove of the armed forces.”
The vessels are fishing boats
believed to be manned by Chi-
nese military-trained personnel,
according to Philippines security
officials.
The vessels’ pres-
ence in the area
raises concern
about overfishing
and the destruc-
tion of the marine
environment, as
well as risks to
safe navigation.
The vessels’ presence in the area
raises concern about overfishing
and the destruction of the ma-
rine environment, as well as risks
to safe navigation, a Philippine
cross-government task force said
late on March 20.
China’s foreign ministry didn’t
immediately respond to a request
for comment on March 21, while
calls to the Chinese embassy in
Manila seeking comment went
unanswered.
An international tribunal invali-
dated China’s claim to 90 percent
of the South China Sea in 2016, but
Beijing doesn’t recognize the rul-
ing. The Chinese regime has built
islands in the disputed waters in
recent years, putting airstrips on
some of them.
Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, the
Philippines, and Brunei all claim
parts of the sea.
In January, the Philippines pro-
tested at a new Chinese law allow-
ing its coast guard to fire on foreign
vessels, describing it as a “threat
of war.”
The United States has repeat-
edly denounced what it called
the Chinese regime’s attempts to
bully neighbors with competing
interests, while Beijing has criti-
cized Washington for what it calls
interference in its internal affairs.
The Whitsun Reef is within Ma-
nila’s exclusive economic zone,
the task force said, describing the
site as “a large boomerang-shaped
shallow coral reef at the northeast
of Pagkakaisa Banks and Reefs.”
The task force vowed to contin-
ue “to peacefully and proactively
pursue its initiatives on environ-
mental protection, food security
and freedom of navigation” in the
South China Sea.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
From Reuters
PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD/
NATIONAL TASK FORCE-WEST PHILIPPINE SEA VIA AP
Some of the 220 Chinese vessels are
seen moored at Whitsun Reef in the
South China Sea on March 7, 2021.
A10 | WORLD
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (R) speaks with Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh before the guard of honor in New Delhi on March 20, 2021.
US, China Engage in Dueling Narratives
Over Quad, India
VENUS UPADHAYAYA
NEW DELHI—The United States, India,
Australia, and Japan came together for
their first virtual meeting of the Quadri-
lateral Security Dialogue (Quad) on March
12, while U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd
Austin visited India to boost strategic ties
and address common goals in the Indo-
Pacific region.
China, Russian, and Pakistan responded
to the meeting with lobbying and rhetori-
cal pushback.
Austin, who arrived in India on March 19
for a three-day visit, called the U.S.–Indo
partnership a “central pillar” of American
policy for the Indo-Pacific. In a statement,
the Pentagon noted the joint efforts of India
and the United States toward developing a
“partnership to protect the Indo-Pacific.”
Talk of China dominated both the Quad
gathering and Austin’s New Delhi visit.
Without directly naming China, Austin
told a group of reporters traveling with him
to India, “I think working together with
like-minded countries who have shared
interests is the way you check any aggres-
sion in any region.”
Meanwhile, in the Quad summit’s joint
statement, the leaders of the four nations
emphasized an Indo-Pacific “anchored by
democratic values and unconstrained by
coercion,” which pointed directly at China.
Since the Biden administration started
defining its China policy and expressing
continuity of the Quad alliance, the Chi-
nese media have downplayed the Quad
and cautioned India about losing its stra-
tegic autonomy to its partnership with the
United States.
In its pursuit of a counter-narrative to
Quad’s “free, open, accessible, diverse and
thriving Indo-Pacific,” China is joined by
Pakistan and Russia, whose media and
think tanks have carried reports and op-
eds against the alliance, particularly about
India’s central role in it.
“Russia is worried about India slowing
down defense purchases from Moscow and
switching instead to Washington, which
would be expected, the closer India and
the U.S. come together in a defense and
security alliance,” Madhav Das Nalapat,
vice chair of the Manipal Advanced Re-
search Group and editorial director of ITV
Media, told The Epoch Times in an email.
He said that China wants India to con-
tinue with its former non-alignment for-
eign policy, which was characterized by
non-participation in the strategic affairs of
the bipolar world, “so that no other country
will come to its assistance should Beijing
decide to launch a major kinetic attack ei-
ther by itself or together with Pakistan.”
Jeff Smith, a research fellow for South
Asia at the Washington-based Heritage
Foundation, told The Epoch Times that
China, Pakistan, and Russia don’t appear
KIYOSHI OTA/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
(L–R) A monitor displaying a virtual meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, Jap-
anese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison,
and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the virtual Quadrilateral Secu-
rity Dialogue, at Suga’s official residence in Tokyo on March 12, 2021.
to have a coordinated strategy to counter
Quad.
“China and Russia have both criticized
the Quad in public and sought, unsuccess-
fully, to persuade India to refrain from join-
ing the group, [while] the Pakistani govern-
ment has not said much publicly,” he said.
Counternarratives
Ian Hall, the deputy director of Griffith Asia
Institute in Brisbane, told The Epoch Times
in an email that China will try to “divide
Jeff Smith, research the Quad and disrupt coordination.”
fellow for South Asia, In an analysis published early last year
The Heritage by India’s Observer’s Research Foundation,
Foundation. Chen Chenchen, the deputy director of
the Institute of China’s Economic Reform
and Development at Renmin University of
China, wrote that Chinese leader Xi Jinping
has called upon Chinese agencies and ex-
perts in public diplomacy to tell the “China
stories well” since he first came to power.
There are more than 2,000 think tanks
in China, according to Chen, which, along
with overseas Chinese media, overseas
By joining think tanks, Chinese enterprises, and Chi-
Quad, ... India is nese expats, construct Chinese diplomacy
abroad.
entirely in the Taken together, the experts refer to these
American block, institutions and individuals as China’s lob-
which is against bying base. In today’s context, these China
lobbyists are working against the Quad.
China–a close A search for the topic “Quad” on the
ally of Russia website of Chinese state mouthpiece The
Global Times lists more than 15 stories
and Pakistan. published immediately before and after
Zamir Ahmad Awan, the March 12 summit—with all running
professor, National around a central narrative of economic
University of Sciences and ruin for the members, particularly India.
Technology Coinciding with Austin’s visit, The Glob-
al Times ran an opinion piece originally
published under the headline “India Will
Not Downgrade as a US Appendage Like
Japan Since New Delhi Seeks Major Power
Autonomy.”
Zamir Ahmad Awan, a former Pakistani
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
MONEY SHARMA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
diplomat and a professor at the National
University of Sciences and Technology
in Islamabad, wrote in an analysis pub-
lished on the RIAC website that the Quad
is responsible for the widening gap be-
tween India and Russia, which, for the
first time ever, didn’t hold their annual
summit last year.
“Moscow communicated severe con-
cerns on New Delhi joining the Indo-Pa-
cific initiative and Quad, thereby leaning
more towards the U.S.,” said Awan, who
is also a nonresident fellow of the Beijing-
based Center for China and Globalization.
“By joining Quad, ... India is entirely
in the American block, which is against
China.”
Is QUAD the Asian NATO?
An opinion piece published by the Global
Times on the day of Quad’s virtual summit
defined the alliance as an “Asian NATO,”
while saying that Quad can’t replicate
NATO because of China’s economic clout
in the region and because of “internal di-
vergence.”
“While the U.S. is trying to contain Chi-
na through the Quadrilateral Security
Dialogue, known as Quad, or the “Asian
NATO,” such ambition is impossible to re-
alize,” read an article by The Global Times,
citing the different demands and political
and religious situations in the region.
Smith said the comparison of Quad to
an Asian NATO isn’t particularly helpful.
“The Quad is not a formal treaty alliance.
It does not have a dedicated purpose or a
dedicated bureaucracy. ‘Asian NATO’ is
generally a description used by critics of
the Quad, although it’s a peculiar line of
attack given that many experts view NATO
as the most successful alliance organiza-
tion in modern history,” he said.
“The ‘Asian NATO’ boogeyman is gen-
erally conjured to suggest the Quad is an
over-militarized organization designed
to contain China’s rise. It is also used as a
warning to India against moving too close
to the Quad, given New Delhi’s historical
aversion to treaty alliances,” he said, add-
ing that neither line of attack has proven
persuasive.
STR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Chinese J-15 fighter jets on the deck of the Lia-
oning aircraft carrier during military drills in the
South China Sea on Jan. 2, 2017.
 MONDAY,
MONDAY, MARCH
MARCH 22,
22, 2021
2021
WORLD  ||  A11
A11

Tokyo Olympics Organizers Bar Overseas Spectators

YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
TOKYO—At last, it’s official after
countless unsourced news reports
and speculation: spectators from
abroad will be barred from the post-
poned Tokyo Olympics when they
open in four months.
The decision was announced
March 20 after an online meeting
of the International Olympic Com-
mittee, the Japanese government,
the Tokyo government, the Interna-
tional Paralympic Committee, and
local organizers.
Officials said the risk was too great
to admit ticket holders from over-
seas during a pandemic; the Japa-
nese public has also opposed fans
from abroad. Several surveys have
shown that up to 80 percent oppose
holding the Olympics, and a similar
percentage opposed fans from over-
seas attending.
Japan has attributed about 8,800
deaths to COVID-19 and has con-
trolled the virus better than most
countries.
“In order to give clarity to ticket
holders living overseas and to en-
able them to adjust their travel
plans at this stage, the parties on
the Japanese side have come to the
conclusion that they will not be able International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach (C on screen) speaks while Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee President Seiko Hashimoto (R) and
to enter into Japan at the time of the Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike (L on screen) listen during a five-party meeting of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo on March 20, 2021.
Olympic and Paralympic Games,” KAZUHIRO NOGI/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

the Tokyo organizing committee the National Stadium in Tokyo.

said in a statement.
Organizers said 600,000 tickets
were sold to fans from outside Japan.
They have promised refunds, but this
will be determined by so-called Au-
thorized Ticket Resellers that handle
sales outside Japan. These dealers
charge fees of up to 20 percent above
the ticket price. It isn’t clear if the fees
will be refunded.
Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the orga-
nizing committee, said organizers
were not responsible for money lost
on flights or hotel reservations. He
said these didn’t involve any “con-
tract arrangement with Tokyo.”
Organizing committee President
Seiko Hashimoto, who appeared
in seven Olympics as an athlete—
she won bronze in speedskating in
1992—said there was pressure to
wait longer to make a decision. But
she said fans could now plan. She
also lamented the move.
“So the fact that spectators are
not able to attend the games from
abroad—that is very disappointing
and it’s regrettable,” she said. “It was
an unavoidable decision.”
IOC President Thomas Bach called
it a “difficult decision.”
“We have to take decisions that
may need sacrifice from everybody,”
he said.
Muto seemed to rule out fans enter-
ing who may have received tickets
from deep-pocketed sponsors.
“If they are part of the operation
of the games, if they are somewhat
involved in the operation then there
Officials said
the risk was too
great to admit
ticket holders
from over-
seas during
a pandemic;
the Japanese
public has also
opposed fans
from abroad.
is still a possibility they may be able
to enter into Japan,” Muto said. “But
solely as spectators for watching
games—no, they will not be allowed
to make an entry.”
The financial burden of lost ticket
sales falls on Japan. The local or-
ganizing committee budget called
for $800 million income from tick-
et sales, the third-largest income
source in the privately financed
budget. Any shortfall in the budget
will have to be made up by Japanese
government entities.
“The ticketing revenue will be in
the decline,” Muto said. “That is very
clear at this point.”
Muto also hinted at more cuts for
people on the periphery of the Olym-
pics. He also said volunteers from
overseas would “be dealt with in the
same manner” but said details would
be forthcoming later.
“But as far as other people related
to the games or whether we should
Tokyo 2020
Olympic Games
CEO Toshiro
Muto speaks
during a press
conference
after a Tokyo
2020 executive
board meeting
in Tokyo on
Sept. 15, 2020.
maintain the same number—per-
haps we will have to reduce the num-
ber. That is the consensus. That is the
premise,” he said.
Overall, Japan is officially spending
$15.4 billion to organize the Olym-
pics. Several government audits say
the actual cost may be twice that
much. All but $6.7 billion is public
money, and a University of Oxford
study says these are the most expen-
sive Olympics on record.
About 4.45 million tickets were
sold to Japan residents. Organiz-
ers are expected next month to
announce the capacity at venues,
which now will be populated by only
local residents.
The ban on fans from abroad comes
just days before the Olympic torch re-
lay starts March 25 from Fukushima
prefecture in northeastern Japan. It
will last for 121 days, crisscross Japan
with 10,000 runners, and is to end on
July 23 at the opening ceremony at
The relay will be a test for the
Olympics and Paralympics, which
will involve 15,400 athletes enter-
ing Japan. They will be tested before
leaving home, tested upon arrival in
Japan, and tested frequently while
they reside in a secure “bubble” in
the Athletes Village alongside Tokyo
Bay, or at venues or training facilities.
Athletes won’t be required to be
vaccinated to enter Japan, but many
will be.
During the March 20 meeting,
Bach and others were given a re-
minder about earthquake-prone
northeastern Japan—and Japan
in general.
A strong earthquake shook Tokyo
and triggered a tsunami warning as
Bach and others made introductory
remarks before the virtual meeting.
The strength was put a 7.0 by the U.S.
Geological Survey and the location
was in northeastern Japan, an area
hit by a huge earthquake and tsuna-
mi in 2011. About 18,000 were killed
in that tragedy 10 years ago.
“I think the screen is shaking. Have
you noticed the screen is shaking,”
Tamayo Marukawa, Japan’s Olym-
pic minister, said as she made her
presentation from Tokyo, talking
remotely to Bach visible on a screen
in Switzerland. “We’re actually in the
midst of an earthquake right now.”
Officials there said there were no
immediate reports of damage.
By  Stephen Wade
From The Associated Press

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May’s full Moon, known as the Full Flower Moon sets behind the Statue of Liberty in New York City on May 7, 2020.
American Exceptionalism vs.
the People’s Republic of China
ROBERT B. CHERNIN
The collision between
American exceptional-
ism and Chinese com-
munism will define the
21st century. The winner
will likely determine what
the globe looks like for the
next hundred years—and beyond.
What exactly is American exception-
alism? It’s a term frequently used but
rarely defined. At its core, it’s about
individual liberties and a shared set of
values. But what are these values, and
what makes them so central to a unique-
ly American experience? Is our Ameri-
can system truly different from all other
nations? To understand what American
exceptionalism is, one must first under-
stand what it’s not. For that, there’s no
better example than the People’s Repub-
lic of China.
China proclaims itself to be “the
people’s” republic. Yet its idea of “for
the people” is very different from ours.
Founded through a proletarian, revo-
lutionary movement, it’s a state-con-
trolled, top-down system of governance
that’s hostile to the very hallmarks of
American exceptionalism. The Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) controls almost
every aspect of the life of its citizens—
from where you can work to how many
children you can have. Most of all, it’s
about obedience—to whatever directive
the state issues.
In truth, the very name, the People’s
Republic, is at best a misnomer. What
do the people of China have to do with
anything other than to be good citizens
and do what the government tells them?
Otherwise, they risk ending up missing
or being sent to a camp for “reeducation.”
That the CCP has launched a new Cold
War against America is undeniable. Chi-
nese money and influence now permeate
every aspect of American life. Economi-
cally, China owns $1.1 trillion dollars
of U.S. debt. They directly or indirectly
control more than 2,400 U.S. companies,
cutting across our most vital sectors in-
cluding finance, technology, agriculture,
and pharmaceuticals.
As we learned during the height of the
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021 • A13
pandemic, the United States imports
almost all antibiotics from China. Like-
wise, almost all the fentanyl (a synthetic
opioid) that has killed hundreds of thou-
sands of Americans (and devastated tens
of millions more) comes from China. The
same influence is seen across education,
media, and entertainment, where Chi-
nese money is used to influence both the
content and messaging of what America
learns, hears, and sees, and, more impor-
tantly, what we don’t.
China recently opened yet another
front in its Cold War against America.
After issuing the world’s first digital
COVID-19 passport earlier this month,
China began lobbying the World Health
Organization to appoint them to head a
global coronavirus passport system. The
result of such a system would of course
be a worldwide, Chinese-led surveil-
lance state, the implications of which are
beyond frightening.
By contrast, American exceptionalism
is centered on the preeminence of three
fundamental core values: the individual,
freedom of will, and the merits of assum-
ing personal responsibility.
First is the affirmation that our indi-
vidual liberties—freedom to speak as we
choose, freedom to pray to God in our
own way, and the right to gather freely
with our family and friends without fear
of government interference—comes
from nature, not from government. The
second is the moral requirement that
we all have a responsibility to help each
other—and not because government
tells us we must. Third, and perhaps
most important, is that the legitimacy
of government comes from the consent
of the governed and is supposed to be
from the bottom-up, not the other way
around.
It’s these shared values, with clear Ju-
deo-Christian roots, that makes America
exceptional, and uniquely different from
any other country in the world.
There’s a reason America is history’s
longest continuous democratic consti-
tutional republic (we have never really
been a democracy). At the center of it
all is a separation of powers, a system of
checks and balances, and most impor-
tantly, the ideals of American excep-
Two paramilitary police
officers patrol in the area
south of the Great Hall of
the People during the sec-
ond plenary session of the
National People’s Congress
in Beijing on March 8, 2021.
China proclaims
itself to be ‘the
people’s’ republic.
Yet its idea of
‘for the people’
is very different
from our own.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
GREG BAKER/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
tionalism—all designed to protect the
liberties and rights of the minority from
the will of the majority. The world that
China seeks to lead is one defined by
state dictums and state control, and is
our exact opposite.
Until we accept that the CCP is an
existential threat and represents to the
21st century what the Soviet Union rep-
resented to the 20th century, the United
States has no hope of prevailing in this
epic collision of ideologies. If America
has any hope of victory in this new Cold
War, it will require a renewed focus on
what once helped us become the leader
of the free world—American exception-
alism, and a recentering on the liberties
and shared values upon which this coun-
try was founded.
The history of American exceptional-
ism versus the People’s Republic of China
will be written by whoever emerges vic-
torious, as has always been the case. Let’s
hope we’re the ones writing the history
books when the time comes.
Robert B. Chernin is chairman at the
American Center for Education and
Knowledge.
A14 | OPINION
The People of Arizona vs. the Democrat Machine
NEWT GINGRICH
Early this month, Demo-
crats pushed through
President Joe Biden’s
$1.9 trillion pork barrel
COVID-19 bill with only
Democratic support. Then,
House Democrats passed
H.R. 1, the so-called “For the People Act,”
in a totally partisan 234—193 vote.
There is a reason you are seeing all
these party-line votes. It is because the
Democratic Party is not operating as
individuals representing distinct districts
of Americans. The Democratic Party
is operating as a machine—a machine
designed to drive a single agenda and
impose it nationwide.
In vote after vote, we are watching Dem-
ocrats, many of whom represent politi-
cally mixed, diverse districts and states,
falling in line to vote for whatever Speaker
Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer tell them to—with no
regard for what the people they represent
back home want. No Democratic senator
or House member seems to care or ques-
tion what is in these bills. They are simply
doing what they are told.
Soon, the U.S. Senate will vote on
H.R. 1. As I have been saying for weeks,
it should be called the “For the Corrupt
Politicians Act.” Among other things,
this bill will nationalize federal elections,
overriding state election laws across the
country. This includes circumventing
some state voter ID laws that are intended
to protect the integrity of elections. It will
also prohibit requiring identification,
notarization, or witnesses for absentee
ballots in every state.
The bill also moves to politicize the
Federal Election Commission—the
bipartisan entity that regulates federal
campaign funding. Currently, the com-
mission has six members—three Repub-
licans and three Democrats. In the spirit
DILBERT
PEANUTS
RED AND ROVER
GRAND AVENUE
MUTT & JEFF
People deposit their mail-
in ballots for the presi-
dential election at a ballot
collection box in Phoenix
on Oct. 18, 2020.
Like this article? Share it
with your friends and family.
Use the camera on your
smart-phone to scan this code
and receive a shareble link.
COMICS
ROBYN BECK/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
of the Democrats’ “For the Corrupt Politi-
cians Act,” the legislation would change
the membership to five, so that which-
ever party was currently in power could
control the body charged with enforcing
election law. How is this in the spirit of
making elections fair and just?
If all this isn’t enough, H.R. 1 will also
create a tax-funded revenue stream for fed-
eral campaigns, which effectively means
that conservative taxpayers in Florida will
be paying for the re-election campaigns
of radical Democrats in California—and
Democrat taxpayers will be footing the bill
for Republicans in red states.
These measures are just crazy—and
deeply unpopular with Americans.
Increasingly, we are going to see
Democratic members of the House and
the Senate put in the position of having
to decide whether to vote for the people
they represent or the Harris-Biden-Pelosi-
Schumer Democratic Machine.
Just consider the decisions Democratic
Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema of
Arizona will have to make when H.R. 1
comes to the Senate for a vote.
First, according to recent surveys about
H.R. 1 by McLaughlin & Associates, only
32 percent of Arizonans are even aware
that this federal election takeover bill
exists. An overwhelming 66 percent of
Arizonans say Congress should not pass
GARFIELD
GINGER MEGGS
BIG NATE
DRABBLE
FRANK AND ERNEST
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
federal election laws to override their
state’s election laws.
Even more Arizonans (70 percent) reject
the idea that the federal government
should override Arizona’s voter ID laws.
While H.R. 1 does not universally abolish
voter ID laws, it opens the door to doing so.
According to the survey, 69 percent of Ari-
zona’s believe voters should show photo ID
to cast ballots—either in-person or by mail.
As to the restructuring of the FEC, 77
percent of Arizonans oppose the effort to
make it a partisan body. The same per-
centage of Arizonans reject the idea of a
“New York City-style” campaign finance
system that funnels taxpayer dollars to
political candidates.
If these numbers don’t move Kelly and
Sinema to break away from the Democratic
Machine on H.R. 1, however, McLaughlin’s
survey revealed a few more key results:
E Sixty-nine percent of Arizonans be-
lieve H.R. 1 benefits the politicians—
not the people.
E Sixty-three percent want their Senators
to vote against the bill.
E And 52 percent say they are less likely
to vote for a senator who votes in favor
of H.R. 1.
Arizona is just one example. McLaughlin
has also done surveys for West Virginia,
Montana, and the whole country on H.R. 1,
which I will discuss in a following column.
The American system was designed to
resist and break political machines like
the one Kamala Harris, Biden, Pelosi, and
Schumer are building. This system will be
tested when H.R. 1 comes to the Senate.
Democrats across the country are go-
ing to have to decide whether they will
vote with their people or with the Demo-
cratic Machine.
Newt Gingrich, a Republican, served as
House speaker from 1995 to 1999 and ran
as a presidential candidate in 2012.
 MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
SPECIAL SERIES: HOW THE SPECTER OF COMMUNISM IS RULING OUR WORLD
Chapter Sixteen: The Communism
Behind Environmentalism
The Epoch Times here serializes
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.”
1. Communism and the
Environmental Movement
(cont.)
e. Making Green the New Red
When environmentalism entered pol-
itics, green politics, or ecopolitics, was
born. Green parties, now established
in many countries, are the result of
green politics, which typically extends
beyond environmental protection to
include left-wing programs such as
social justice, feminism, anti-war ac-
tivism, and pacifism. Global Greens,
for instance, is an international orga-
nization associated with the Green
Party, and its 2001 charter is heavily
influenced by Marxist ideology. [17]
After the fall of communist regimes in
Eastern Europe, many former com-
munist party members and remaining
communist forces joined or estab-
lished green parties, strengthening
the leftist character of green politics.
Former Soviet leader Gorbachev also
tried and failed to re-enter politics. He
then switched to environmentalism
and established Green Cross Interna-
tional. Gorbachev has often promoted
the establishment of a world govern-
ment to prevent ecological disaster. [18]
Many communist parties in the
West are directly involved in envi-
ronmental-protection movements.
Jack Mundey, a union activist and
co-founder of Australia’s green ban
movement, was a member of the
Communist Party of Australia. His
wife was the national president of the
Party from 1979 to 1982. [19]
f. Manipulating the Rhetoric
of Environmentalism
Starting mass movements is one of
communism’s strategies for spreading
its influence across nations and the
world. Many environmental organiza-
tions mobilize large numbers of people
to take part in environmental protec-
tion campaigns. They have lobbied and
hijacked government institutions to
formulate and enforce unreasonable
agreements and regulations. They have
also created violent incidents in order
to silence the general public.
As the radical leftist Saul Alinsky
stated, it is necessary to hide the true
purposes of a movement and mobi-
lize people on a large scale to act in
support of local, temporary, plausible,
or benign goals. When people be-
come accustomed to these moderate
forms of activism, it is relatively easy
to get them to act for more radical
aims. “Remember: once you organize
people around something as com-
monly agreed upon as pollution, then
an organized people is on the move.
From there it’s a short and natural
step to political pollution, to Pentagon
pollution,” Alinsky wrote. [20]
A variety of leftist groups use
environmentalism as ideological
packaging to carry out street actions
advocating revolution. For example,
if a country has a “people’s climate
movement,” you can infer that it is
a product of communist parties. In
the United States, the organizations
involved include the Communist
Party USA, Socialist Action, the
Maoist Revolutionary Communist
Party USA, the Ecological Society of
America, the Socialist Workers Party,
Socialist Alternative, the Democratic
Socialists of America, and so on. Such
groups hosted the People’s Climate
March, parading with a sea of red
flags through major American cities,
including the nation’s capital. Slo-
gans at these events have included
“System change, not climate change,”
“Capitalism is killing us,” “Capital-
ism is destroying the environment,”
“Capitalism is killing the planet,” and
“Fight for a socialist future.” [21]
With more and more communist
and socialist elements strengthening
environmentalism, “green peace” has
made a full transition to red revolution.
The remains of a
new home con-
struction site that
was set on fire
presumably by
members of the
Earth Liberation
Front (ELF) in San
Diego, Calif., on
Sept. 19, 2003.
g. Ecoterrorism
There are many branches of radical
environmentalism, including deep
ecology, ecofeminism, social ecology,
and bioregionalism, with some being
extremely radical. The most well-
known include groups such as Earth
First! and Earth Liberation Front,
which utilize direct action—often
destructive acts known as ecoterror-
ism—to stop activities they consider
damaging to the environment.
Earth First! was named in 1979,
and its slogan is “No compromise in
defense of Mother Earth!” The group
targets logging operations, dam
construction sites, and other projects
using direct action and “creative civil
disobedience.” One of the group’s
well-known tactics is called tree
sitting, in which members sit under
or climb up trees to prevent logging.
These operations have attracted many
leftists, anarchists, and others seeking
to rebel against mainstream society.
As Saul In 1992, some of the more radical
members started a branch called
Alinsky Earth Liberation Front (ELF), copying
said, it is
the ELF name from the Environmental
necessary Life Force group that was disbanded in
to hide 1978, as well as adopting its guerrilla
the true tactics, particularly arson. In Decem-
purposes of ber 2000, ELF perpetrated a series
of crimes on Long Island, New York.
a movement The radicals smashed hundreds of
and windows and spray-painted graffiti in
mobilize a housing development and at the cor-
people on a porate offices of McDonald’s, and set
large scale fire to 16 buildings in a condominium
development, as well as at least four
to act in
luxury homes. The main justification
support for the arson was that the homes were
of local, the “future dens of the wealthy elite”
temporary,
and were being built over forest and
plausible, wetlands. While committing these
or benign direct actions, ELF used the slogan “If
you build it, we will burn it.” [22]
goals. When
In 2005, the FBI announced that ELF
people
and other extremist organizations
become
were a serious terrorist threat to the
accustomed United States, having claimed involve-
to these ment in more than 1,200 criminal
incidents since 1990, causing tens of
moderate
forms of millions of dollars in property dam-
age. [23] The organization’s actions
activism, it have long since exceeded the limits of
is relatively normal political protest or differences
easy to get in views. Communist ideology has
them to act exploited hatred to turn some envi-
for more ronmentalists into terrorists.
radical aims.
h. Greenpeace: Not a Peaceful Story
Greenpeace was established in 1971
and is the largest environmental
organization in the world, with offices
in more than 50 countries and annual
revenues of more than $350 million. It
is also one of the more radical envi-
ronmental organizations.
Greenpeace co-founder Paul Wat-
son, who left the organization in 1977,
said: “The secret to [former chair-
man] David McTaggart’s success is
the secret to Greenpeace’s success:
It doesn’t matter what is true, it only
matters what people believe is true. ...
You are what the media define you to
be. [Greenpeace] became a myth, and
a myth-generating machine.” [24]
Patrick Moore, another co-founder,
was committed to environmental
protection, but left the organization
after 15 years, saying it had taken “a
sharp turn to the political left.” It had
developed into an extremist organi-
zation displaying hostility toward all
industrial production and reflecting
an agenda based more on politics
SANDY HUFFAKER/GETTY IMAGES
than on sound science. [25]
In 2007, six Greenpeace members
broke into a British coal power plant
and were subsequently sued for
causing damage worth about 30,000
British pounds. They admitted to
attempting to shut down the power
plant, but claimed that they were
doing it to prevent even greater dam-
age (an environmental crisis due to
greenhouse gases). The court cleared
the six of wrongdoing. Before this,
Greenpeace had chalked up several
court wins over actions such as dam-
aging a fighter jet and nuclear sub-
marine equipment, and occupying
Britain’s largest waste incinerator. [26]
The strategy of radical environmental
organizations such as Greenpeace is
to use any means necessary to achieve
their goals. On this point, radical envi-
ronmentalism is highly consistent with
communism. Traditional Marxism-Le-
ninism uses the promise of an eventual
utopia to justify killing, arson, and
robbery. Similarly, under the banner of
environmentalism, communists play
up environmental crises to legitimize
violent and illegal tactics.
In the above example, lawyers for
the six Greenpeace members suc-
cessfully persuaded the jury to accept
their criminal behavior as legitimate,
demonstrating that society can be
misled into accepting specious and
groundless arguments. All of this is
part of the abandonment of univer-
sal values and is an indication of the
moral downslide of society.
Notes
17. Bob Brown and Peter Singer, “The
Greens” (Melbourne: Text Publishing
Company, 1996), 55.
18. Mikhail Gorbachev, “We Have a Real
Emergency,” The New York Times, Dec. 9,
2009.
19. “Jack Mundey,” Sydney’s Aldermen,
City of Sydney website, accessed April 30,
2020.
20. Saul Alinsky, “Tactics,” in “Rules for
Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic
Radicals” (New York: Vintage Books, 1971).
21. Zombie, “Climate Movement Drops
Mask, Admits Communist Agenda,” PJ
Media, Sept. 23, 2014.
22. Dan Barry and Al Baker, “For ‘Eco-
Terrorism’ Group, a Hidden Structure and
Public Messages,” The New York Times, Jan.
8, 2001.
23. Noel Moand, “A Spark That Ignited a
Flame: The Evolution of the Earth Liberation
Front,” in “Igniting a Revolution: Voices in
Defense of the Earth,” eds. Steven Best and
Anthony J. Nocella, II (Oakland, Calif.: AK
Press, 2006), 47.
24. Paul Watson, as quoted in Leslie
Spencer, Jan Bollwerk, and Richard C.
Morais, “The Not So Peaceful World of
Greenpeace,” Forbes, November 1991,
accessed via the Heartland Institute.
25. Ted Thornhill, “Humans Are NOT
to Blame for Global Warming, Says
Greenpeace Co-founder, as He Insists There
Is ‘No Scientific Proof’ Climate Change Is
Manmade,” Daily Mail, Feb. 27, 2014.
26. John Vidal, “Not Guilty: The Greenpeace
Activists Who Used Climate Change as a
Legal Defence,” The Guardian, Sept 10,
2008.
See next edition for the next installment.
To purchase the books, visit Epoch-
Shop.com
OPINION | A15
Stephen Gregory, Publisher
Jasper Fakkert, Editor-in-Chief
Channaly Philipp, Life & Tradition,
Travel Editor
Chrisy Trudeau, Mind & Body Editor
Crystal Shi, Home, Food Editor
Sharon Kilarski, Arts & Culture Editor
ABOUT US
The Epoch Times is a media
organization dedicated to seek-
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and independent journalism.
Standing outside of politi-
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We endeavor to educate read-
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As an independent media out-
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A16 | OPINION MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021

An America-First George Soros

ANGELA WEISS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

MARK BAUERLEIN

A few years ago, a friend

passed along a warn-
ing from his mother,
an attorney in the Bay
Area who was worried
about the upcoming elec-
tion. Although a political
liberal, she didn’t fear the Republicans,
of course (not in San Francisco), only
the candidates from the far left who
were up for local offices such as district
attorney.
“Soros is behind it all,” she told her
son, and the candidates she had in mind
came right out of the radical ranks.
It was the first I’d heard of Soros
money reaching so far down to local
levels. I took it as but one more episode
in a long history of conservative dis-
may—not because it seemed that the
tremulous fingers of Soros reached into
everything, but because Republicans
had nothing to block them. No point
getting indignant over the machina-
tions of the left, I thought, not after so
many years of being outmaneuvered
by them on the ground, in the culture
spheres, in media, in corporate Ameri-
ca (where leftists run human resources
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

offices), in the academy, the public conservative agenda.

A Democratic Party activist school system...
distributes information pam- At that moment, as my friend de-
phlets to residents in Coplay, scribed a fresh tactic underway, to
Pa., on Oct. 29, 2020. complain about Big Left money going
into small races would be whiny and
fruitless.
The real question was this: Why are
conservatives always outflanked and
on defense and playing catch-up? Why
can’t the right scheme and plot as can-
nily as the left? In 2018, Democrats in
California allegedly used ballot har-
vesting to swing longstanding conser-
vative districts, a brilliant move that
should have launched a strong Re-
publican counter-offensive, but by the
George Soros arrives to deliver a speech on the evidence of 2020, Republicans learned
sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual nothing from it.
meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 24, 2019. Their local efforts after losing the
House in 2018 showed little advance, as
far as I could see, and I can’t recall any
commentators on the right taking their
The Book You’ve Been eyes off the races for offices in Washing-
ton, D.C., and insisting on pushing local
Waiting for... gains. The riots of the summer showed,
however, how important mayors and
district attorneys are, while the poor
performance of the Georgia secretary
of state proves the impact lesser state
offices can have on outcomes. It’s easy
to mock Stacey Abrams, but does any-
one doubt that she ran circles around
NOW Republicans all summer and fall?
The Soros strategy of hitting lo-
BIGGER SIZE, cal races fits perfectly with the leftist
EASIER TO READ playbook of institution-conversion by
FORMAT changes in personnel. It says: You don’t
need to reform an institution to alter its
values or philosophy or goals—just get
the right people in place and the other
transformations will follow. That goes
for city councils, school boards, human
rights commissions, election bodies,
and so on. Conservatives, on the other
hand, believe that rules and norms
hold those institutions to a firm course.
“Extremely well “The Truth, as horrifying as it is, They respect traditions and suspect the
progressivist impulse to “evolve.”
researched and true.” shall set us free. This should be But leftists don’t care. They do what
on this country’s academia’s they want, the past be damned. In
2004, while serving as mayor of San
list of required reading.”
HOW THE
Francisco, Gavin Newsom ordered the
city clerk to issue marriage licenses to
same-sex couples, even though it vio-
The Swamp did its reactionary work,
to be sure, but compare how the incom-
ing Trump people treated the Obama
people to how the incoming Biden
people handled the Trump officehold-
ers. Trump’s personnel office left many
Obama people in place for months (and
often longer), but not Biden’s. The first
was kid gloves, the second, “Pack up
and get out—Now!”
It’s all too clear that a
wider strategy is needed, a
Soros network for the right.
With leftist money and strategy plant-
ing leftists into lower posts in states and
cities across the nation, a Republican
governor will have the same Swamp
problem President Donald Trump
faced every time. November 2016 was a
conservative triumph at the top alone.
It’s all too clear that a wider strategy is
needed: a Soros network for the right.
Trump has the money and popularity
to do it, the energy and charisma, too.
Imagine a conservative blitzkrieg in
Chicago targeting its hapless mayor—
rallies, commercials, door-to-door
campaigning nonstop, voter registra-
tion, entertainment, free food ... all of
it highlighting the incompetence of
Democrat leaders, the pernicious iden-
tity politics, the ongoing violence. Bring
to Chicagoans a tidal wave of publicity
showcasing the utter lack of ethics in
the Smollett case. Put the left on de-
fense, get out in front of them, make
them react, make them wonder what’s
coming next.
This is the best thing that Trump can
do at the present moment. November
2024 is a long time away, and besides,
what makes anyone think that a second
Trump administration would drain the
Swamp any better than the first one
did? We need smaller victories, lots of
them. There are too many leftist hacks
in offices of low visibility—try attend-
ing a school board meeting and listen
to the conversation when social issues

SPECTER OF COMMUNISM
lated state law that defined marriage as come up—but those figures often end
a union of man and woman. That didn’t up having a not-insignificant impact.
hurt him at all, obviously. It helped his Moreover, they got in the door not

IS RULING OUR WORLD

career, and conservatives have had to
sit back and stew. But then, what were
their options?
If a regulation or policy or law exists,
and the person appointed to uphold
The specter of communism did not or apply it refuses to do so, what’re ya
gonna do? Appealing to the courts is
one choice, but that takes time and
disappear with the disintegration of the money. Appealing to public opinion
takes longer, and the attention span of
Communist Party in Eastern Europe the electorate is short. It needs constant
reinforcement.
Hence, the value of big money in local
through their own meager political tal-
ents, but through a relentless machine
that so far has met little resistance.
Remember, too, that the politics they
espouse often doesn’t have the support
of the majority of voters in the city or
county. It’s the actions of leftist money
that have clouded that divergence, and
the actions of conservative money,
copious and well-aimed, could clear
the air.
This is low-hanging fruit, President
Trump. The time is right, the woke

ORDER NOW! races. Once you have your candidate

in place, the burden falls on conserva-
tives, who are from thence onward in
a reactive mode. Isn’t this the signal
failure of the Trump administration?
Not the wrong ideas or policies or mes-
left is estranging a growing number
of Americans. Pick an upcoming race,
any race, make the plunge, and let’s see
what happens.
Mark Bauerlein is an emeritus profes-

EpochShop.com
saging, just the wrong people. I don’t
mean the Swamp, either. I mean the
political appointments, the incapacity
to secure the right individuals to do the
job of implementing a genuine populist
sor of English at Emory University. His
work has been featured in The Wall
Street Journal, The Weekly Standard,
The Washington Post, the TLS, and the
Chronicle of Higher Education.
 MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
Five Truths About Grid
Reliability and Deregulation
DEVIN HARTMAN & BETH GARZA
Commentary
Before electricity had been restored last
month, false claims proliferated as swiftly
as the outages themselves. Misguided
criticisms included excessive blame lev-
ied at wind power, while others have
fallen into the trap of blaming “deregula-
tion” of the power industry. That’s dead
wrong for two reasons: power markets
aren’t “deregulated” for reliability pur-
poses and the data show that competitive
markets have a superior reliability record
to the monopoly utility model.
Now is the time to focus on the root
causes of February’s outages and let
the full body of evidence speak to the
relationship between regulation and grid
reliability. To that end, there’s five truths
to go by:
1. February’s generator outages and
rotating “blackouts” affected market
and monopoly states. Three grid opera-
tors implemented rotating outages across
much of the Midwest and South, of which
two are comprised predominately of
generators owned by monopoly utilities.
The other, Texas, deserves more focus
because of the greater number and dura-
tion of customer outages. Paradoxically, a
key lesson in Texas is that it’s not enough
of a market. That is, consumers’ reliability
Money Flows Into US Equity Funds
Climb to a Five-Week High: Lipper
Investment flows into U.S. equity funds
jumped to a five-week high in the week
ended March 17, buoyed by optimism over
a massive stimulus package and on expec-
tations that the Federal Reserve’s monetary
policy stance would remain dovish.
U.S. equity mutual funds pocketed a net
inflow of $20.1 billion in the week, which
marked a sixth straight week of net buying,
data from Refinitiv Lipper showed.
The inflows were led by U.S. small-cap
funds and mid-cap funds, seeing net pur-
chases of $3.6 billion and $2.1 billion re-
spectively. On the other hand, large-cap
funds had an inflow of just $251 million.
Among sector funds, investors turned net
buyers of tech funds last week, purchasing
$832 million, as tech stocks appeared at-
tractive at lower valuations after witnessing
SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
The New York Stock Exchange on March 9, 2021.
preferences are suppressed by adminis-
trative rules, whereas reforms to integrate
consumers into the market would pro-
duce more voluntary demand reduction
and more selective involuntary customer
outages. This would have avoided much
of the economic and public health conse-
quences witnessed in February.
2. Competitive generators are regu-
lated, especially for reliability purposes.
National generator reliability standards
are developed by the North American
Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)
and approved by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) for all
generators, irrespective of their competi-
tive or monopoly status. Preliminary data
indicate that the causes of most generator
outages in February are linked to insuffi-
cient weatherization and natural gas fuel
supply. Addressing this through market
rules to incent voluntary behavior versus
mandatory reliability standards is where
the fair debate on the merits of regula-
tion reside. The FERC is already exploring
making winter weatherization standards
mandatory.
3. Competitive markets produce su-
perior reliability behavior. Upon the
introduction of mass competitive power
ownership in the 1990s, competitive
generators immediately began to reduce
power plant outages and invest in reliabil-
sharp selling in the prior weeks.
Investors were sanguine ahead of a two-
day Fed policy meeting at which the central
bank signaled its intent to keep rates near
zero until at least 2024, also predicting a
fast economic recovery from the pandemic.
U.S. money market funds
see net sales of $5.3 billion,
the first outflow in six weeks.
However, U.S. stocks tumbled on March
19, with banks leading the way after the Fed
let expire a temporary capital buffer relief
put in place to ease a pandemic-driven
stress in the funding mark.
Meanwhile, investors bought $9.72 billion
in U.S. bond funds in the week, compared
with $1.32 billion in the preceding week.
U.S. Taxable bond funds had an inflow
of $7.9 billion, while U.S. municipal funds
saw an inflow of $9.3 billion.
Investors turned net buyers of U.S. High
yield funds, buying $260 million, after
dumping $5.5. billion in the last week.
On the other hand, U.S. money market
funds see net sales of $5.3 billion, the first
outflow in six weeks.
By Gaurav Dogra &
Patturaja Murugaboopathy
From Reuters
BUSINESS & ECONOMY | A17
KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/GETTY IMAGES
reliability when they joined an organized
market, where the grid operator dis-
patches power plants based on dynamic
regional transmission conditions, unlike
the previous operation of those plants
that poorly reflected grid conditions. The
southern states who remain holdouts
from organized markets would be wise
to inquire about the growing reliability
advantage of markets, especially when it
comes to extreme weather events.
5. The monopoly model is increasingly
disadvantageous for grid reliability. The
monopoly model has always stifled in-
novation and elevated costs unnecessar-
ily, but it was serviceable on the reliability
front. That’s because past power plant
decisions were easy, such as choosing to
build a coal or gas-fired plant and then
operating them simply, often at a steady
state. However, as the generation mix
relies more on diverse and unconven-
tional resources, like renewables and
storage, keeping the lights on requires
dynamic, complex decisions. With this
in mind, consumer groups, indepen-
dent monitors and grid operators in the
great plains and midcontinent areas are
increasingly concerned by the inflex-
ible operations and misaligned invest-
ments of monopoly utility power plants
An electrical grid in from grid-operating conditions. In fact,
Springerville, Ariz., in
this file photo.
they are engaging states to encourage
regulators to address reliability concerns
as the generation mix evolves.
Some have suggested that the regula-
tory tools of the past are best positioned
to meet future reliability challenges. In-
dependent grid monitors say otherwise,
noting evidence of a growing market ad-
vantage where reforms should enhance
ity-enhancing innovation relative to mo- competition and choice. The only ques-
nopolies. In recent years, this compelled tion is whether political responses fall
Texas generators to have industry-leading victim to the false security of state-sanc-
reliability performance, especially for tioned monopolies, or if policymakers are
extreme weather like heat waves. These brave enough to empower competitive
results are predictable, as some competi- American enterprises to unleash the grid
tive power companies base executive of the future.
bonuses off the ability to produce power
during price spikes. Simply put, aligning From RealClearWire.
the profit motive with generation output
is a potent and effective reliability policy. Devin Hartman is the director of energy
and environmental policy at the R Street
4. Organized electricity markets have a Institute.
superior reliability track record. This ap-
plies even in areas where monopoly utili- Beth Garza is a resident senior fellow of
ties own the generation. Monopoly states, energy and environmental policy at the R
like Louisiana, have seen improved Street Institute.
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A18 | PUZZLES MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021

CROSSWORD CONSTRUCTED BY TOM HOUSTON

EPOCH TIMES STAFF 11. Confuse 4NUMBERS CONSTRUCTED BY C. CHANG
AT 4NUMS.COM DAILY BRIDGE CLUB
12. Affluent area outside Choosing a suit
Use the four numbers in the corners, and
a city the operands (+, - X, and ÷) to build an BY FRANK STEWART, TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY
13. Nonanalytic equation to get the solution in the middle.
©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
There may be more than one “unique” so-
14. Altar screen lution but, there may also be “equivalent”
If at first you don’t succeed, find out if
15. Like some grins solutions. For example: 6 + (7 X 3) +1 = 28
second place wins anything. A dummy-play
and 1+ (7 X 3) + 6 = 28
20. Alliance principle: When you can succeed by setting
24. Ear part up either of two long suits, retain the option
of trying both.
26. Congress can over- Today’s West led the ace and a second
ride it trump against six spades, a start that looked
27. Black good for the defense. In fact, it wasn’t, but
South went down anyway. He next led the
28. Fowl place king and another diamond.
29. “In one ___ and out West discarded, and South took
the other” dummy’s ace and tried the hearts: A-K and
a third heart. This time East showed out, and
30. To this day declarer was short one entry to dummy to
31. Eat like a bird set up and cash the fifth heart. He ruffed one
32. Nut job club in dummy and threw one on the queen
33. Put up a stake of diamonds but lost a club at the end.
Hard 1 - 1 Solution
38. Spirit NOT EASY
39. “Poetic ___”: ancient South must try the hearts first: A-K,
Icelandic work heart ruff, club ruff, heart ruff. Then he
can take three diamonds to discard a
40. Gloomy club and pitch his last club on the good
42. “‘___ the night before fifth heart. If hearts broke 5-1, South
Christmas...” could still try the diamonds, succeeding
if that suit broke 4-2 or 3-3.
43. “Cogito, ___ sum” This week: which suit?
47. Follow as a result
49. A while back DAILY QUESTION
You hold: kK Q 10 j A K 7 3 2 i A
50. Half-baked Q 7 6 3 h None. You open one heart,
51. Calculations made your partner bids one spade, you jump to
while high, for short? three diamonds and he returns to three
Hard 2 - 1 Solution hearts. What do you say?
53. Unstable particles ANSWER: Don’t get carried away.
Across 41. Kind of oil 79. Like a seadog’s face 54. All excited Your jump-shift was forcing to game and
1. Venom source 44. Pasture 83. Like some cereals 56. Square promised great strength, so you need
57. “Abominable” one only bid three spades now. If you have
4. Small sunfish 45. Sensed 84. “Pure ___” (Lorde a slam, your partner can get you there,
11. Endures 46. Lifework album) 58. Cohort but if his hand is weak — which is quite
16. Communist dictator 48. Was a passenger 85. ___’wester 59. Disproportionate possible — you need to rest no higher
60. Place than game.
17. Survive 52. Recognition response 86. They’re entered in East dealer
18. Cough up 55. A tenderfoot may tie court 61. “Double Fantasy” N-S vulnerable
19. Arguable one 87. Idiosyncrasy artist
NORTH
21. Cats, e.g. 58. Act cautiously 88. Lunkhead 66. Reservoir in New kK Q 10
jA K 7 3 2
22. Window part 62. “Get it?” York iA Q 7 6 3
23. 1965 Ursula Andress 63. Tax pro, for short Down 67. Pack hNone
Easy 1 - 1 Solution
film 64. Blackbird 1. Intensifies, with “up” 69. Skin problem WEST EAST
24. Radium discoverer 65. “___-Up Girl” (1944 2. Rani’s wear 70. Let go kA 4
jQ 10 9 5
k5 3
j8 4
25. “A thousand times Betty Grable film) 3. Billiards relative 71. “Swiss” vegetable i4 iJ 10 9 8 5
75. Artist Bonheur hK J 10 9 4 2 hA 7 6 3
no!” 66. Genuflections of a 4. Harland Sanders’ hon.
31. Certain test controls sort rank 76. “Aeneid” figure SOUTH
77. ___ probandi kJ 9 8 7 6 2
34. What’s more 68. Bank’s written guar- 5. Wish undone jJ 6
35. Lobster eggs antee 6. “Fast cash” site 78. Elephant grp. iK 2
hQ 8 5
36. 1 billion years, in 72. 24 sheets of paper 7. Ecto- followers 79. Journalist’s question
astronomy 73. Greek consonant 8. Concise 80. Rush East South West North
Pass Pass 3h Dbl
37. As well 74. “100 years young” 9. Covered by vines 81. CWO4’s superior, in 4h 4k Pass 6k
38. Armorial bearings cookie 10. Common Market: the Navy All Pass
expert 78. Fertilizer type Abbr. 82. Matter for a judge Easy 2 - 1 Solution Opening lead — k 5

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.

A PRIORI EXURB PITHY

AFIRE FREED PLACEBOS
BEARS FURRY PLASMS
BEFUDDLE GUANO PLEAS
CANAL HEART PROBLEMATIC
CHARD HERALDIST PUSSYFOOT
COTTONSEED HEROINE QUIRE
CRAPPIE HYPERONS REREDOS
CROTON IVIED ROOST
CURIE LETTER OF CREDIT SITUATE
CURTSEYS OATEN TINEA
ENSUE ODDNESS TRADE
EXPEL OUTLIVE UNEQUAL

SOLUTIONS
CROSSWORD SUPER KAKURO 4NUMBERS

HARD 1

HARD 2

EASY 1

EASY 2
 MONDAY, MARCH 22, 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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Easy
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OUR PUZZLE PAGE IN RESPONSE TO
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WHAT YOU THINK!
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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
2

EPOCH DOKU CONSTRUCTED

BY EPOCH TIMES STAFF

WORK SPACE

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
MPOHO
EPOCH ESCAPE MAZE
SIOTH

RAWNDO

TARMOL
Now arrange the circled letters
©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC to form the surprise answer, as
All Rights Reserved. suggested by the above cartoon.
28 Print your
answer here:
“ -
”

WORK SPACE

SOLUTIONS
SUPERSUDOKU SUDOKU: EASY JUMBLE EASY KAKURO
making — “MOO-MOOS” Losing Streak
her own clothing and was
The cow decided to create
Answers:

MORTAL
ONWARD
HOIST
OOMPH 28

SUDOKU: HARD EPOCH DOKU

Jumbles:

CRYPTIC QUOTE

whereof they are uttered.

according to the matter
Words must be taken

Contact the Puzzle Master @: Feedback@EpochTimes.com

A20 | MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021

Truth and Tradition

The Gift of Strength in a Challenging Time
You know that the truth doesn’t just make you more Through our journalism, you can prove to them that our
informed—it can also give you the strength to fight and to nation’s values still remain strong. You can show them that
hope. But what about your friends and family who are still there is a growing community that’s willing to stand up for
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Our Epoch Times gift subscription can help you share What else can
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Help America find a better news source, like these people did:

I rely on The Epoch Times
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unbiased news coverage.
LARRY ELDER
Best-selling author, attorney,
and talk show host
Military and intelligence analyst and former
I congratulate you and I love reading The Epoch Times has been
The Epoch Times for the work The Epoch Times! a welcome and refreshing
you are doing, especially with I always feel encouraged antidote that re-instills
regard to keeping the menace and hopeful about sanity and rationality, as well
of the communist threat in our future. as sanctity for human life.
front of us. CHRISTINE CARTWRIGHT NEAL BOGOSIAN
DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA
deputy assistant to the president

G i v e t h e G i ft o f Tr u t h a n d Tra d i t i o n , a t a n y t i m e

ReadEpoch.com/gift

What Our Now I truly feel as if I can breathe while reading the news as
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The Epoch Times has made it
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media and standard “news outlets”
these days. Mainly I believe this
is due to the 24/7 news cycle, but
that’s a soapbox for anther day.
Most American news sources
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FOR Democracy and AGAINST
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or need to emote or opine. The
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TRUTH AND TRADITION

 MONKEY BUSINESS IMAGES/SHUTTERSTOCK PAULO VILELA/SHUTTERSTOCK
MINIMALISM COVID-19

You Need Less Variety Than Pandemic Babies Raise

You Think. Embrace It. Worrying Questions
Our cultural obsession with novelty runs coun- Researchers call for greater focus on how COVID-19
ter to our natural inclination for simplicity. has affected child development.

See B2 See B5

MIND & BODY

WELL-BEING |DIET |FITNESS MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021 B1

KAZIMINMIZAN/UNSPLASH

MINDSET MATTERS

How
Anxiety
Hides
in Your When

Habits anxiety
strikes, we can
ward it off better if
we take a moment
to contemplate
Before trying the habits that
feed it.
tips to lower
your anxiety,
a new book
encourages you
to understand
your anxiety
routines

KIRA M. NEWMAN Implementing tips and tools skips an im- reduce stress or satisfy emotional needs,

I
don’t know about you, but I’m a little
tired of reading the same tips over and
over about how to calm down and
destress. I want other options besides
slowing my breathing when my chest
feels heavy, or questioning the worst-case
scenarios running through my head.
That’s why psychiatrist Judson Brewer’s
new book “Unwinding Anxiety” is so re-
freshing. Yes, it has tips—but they come
later in the book. In fact, his main point is
that tips alone won’t help those of us who
struggle with anxiety.
Brewer shows how anxiety exists inside
the habits of our everyday lives—and hab-
its are sticky. Habits like shallow, tense
breathing don’t go away just because
we tell ourselves to breathe. As crazy as
it sounds, our brain is attracted to these
anxiety habits because they create some
sense of reward.
KAESLER MEDIA/SHUTTERSTOCK
Counter Anxiety portant step, Brewer argues. Before we can
try to change anything, we have to spend
With Mindfulness some time observing our anxiety-related
ŀ $".&-(:$ -#1$+ 8(-3. habits. Only then—by showing our brain
3'$/1$2$-3,.,$-3 viscerally how unrewarding these habits
are—can we move on to actually creating
ŀ ""$/3 -# ++.7(3 new ones.
3.!$3'$1$ “Unwinding Anxiety” offers a three-
ŀ -6$23(& 3$9.51 step process to help you do exactly that,
!.#(+92$-2 3(.-2Ċ backed up by Brewer’s extensive hab-
$,.3(.-2Ċ -# it research. While many wellness books
3'.5&'32 can feel overwhelming, his approach
ŀ .3$7' 3(2 is reassuring in its simplicity and en-
' //$-(-& gaging enough to feel like it just might
work.
STEP 1 Map Out
Anxiety Habits
If you struggle with anxiety, it’s
likely that anxiety has become a
habit for you, Brewer writes. Many
of our habits were meant to help us
he says. Unfortunately, many of these ef-
forts are short-term only, and don’t always
benefit us long-term. Eating comfort foods
may be one example. Our habits exist in
loops that consist of a trigger, a behavior,
and a result. For example:
TRIGGER: Feel anxious
BEHAVIOR: Eat something sweet
RESULT: Be distracted from anxiety
Sometimes anxiety can trigger a habit loop,
but it can also be the result in a habit loop:
TRIGGER: Feel unmotivated at work
BEHAVIOR: Read news
RESULT: Feel anxious about the state of the
world
But the most pernicious anxiety-related
habit is this basic pattern, which many of
us fall into, where anxiety reinforces itself:
Continued on B4

MADE TO MOVE
New research has
Exercise Spurs Molecular Change revealed a wider
picture of the sweeping
impacts exercise has
Exercising spurs thousands of biochemical reactions that on our biochemistry.
scientists still know little about
JOSEPH MERCOLA to changes in a remarkable 9,815 bolic pathways.
ESB PROFESSIONAL/SHUTTERSTOCK

molecules in your blood. This gives a glimpse into why

In the most comprehensive study to
date of the molecular changes that oc-
cur in your body due to exercise, re-
searchers have seen “an orchestrated
choreography of biological processes.”
Researchers at Stanford University
found that one exercise session leads
The findings reveal exercise does
far more than simply raise your
heart rate and cause you to break
a sweat. Physical activity leads to a
system-wide molecular response
in your body, including changes in
inflammatory markers and meta-
the very straightforward act of
getting moving is associated with
so many benefits to your physical
and mental health, from boosting
your immune system to protecting
cognitive function.
Continued on B6
B2  MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021

BECOMING MINIMALIST

What People Are Saying You Need

I read The Epoch Times daily.
I still like hard papers […] and
I still like to grab that paper in
my hand, but I get more printed
versions of stories than ever
before. You guys have done an
amazing job, and really—I think
there’s such a void in media,
especially newspapers. They
slant so solidly one way that
there are very few papers that
I can really feel that I can rely on,
and The Epoch Times is one.
Less Variety
I congratulate you and
Than You Think.
The Epoch Times for the work
you are doing, especially with
regard to keeping the menace of
the communist threat in front of us.
Embrace It.
DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA
Military and intelligence analyst and
former deputy assistant to the president
Our cultural obsession with
novelty runs counter to our
natural inclination for simplicity
JOSHUA BECKER We wear 20 percent of our clothes 80

SEAN HANNITY
Talk show host
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great place where you can
understand traditional
values in a way and in a tone
and through content that is
accessible. It’s smart.
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Columnist and broadcaster
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TRUTH AND TRADITION
T
I rely on The Epoch Times percent of the time.
newspaper for factual and he first time I ever heard about We use 20 percent of our kitchen gad-
unbiased news coverage. someone eating the same gets 80 percent of the time.
meal every day was from the We watch 20 percent of the same chan-
LARRY ELDER family practice doctor in Wis- nels 80 percent of the time.
Best-selling author, attorney, consin who delivered my son And, generally speaking, we eat 20
and talk show host
and soon became a valued friend. The percent of the same food 80 percent of
doctor—old enough to be my father—ate the time.
a taco salad every day for lunch. Just think about what you have had
A few years later, I was at another to eat for breakfast over the past week.
friend’s parents’ house and he showed Most likely, you’ve eaten the same cou-
me their basement pantry loaded with ple of meals. Or how about lunch?
shelves of canned tuna. He told me that My breakfast these days, when I eat
his dad, a professional fisherman, ate it, is two eggs and four strips of turkey
It’s our favorite paper. It’s the first a tuna sandwich every day for lunch. bacon. My lunch consists of rotisserie
one we read. Thank you so much I didn’t give the idea much thought chicken or a salad (with chicken).
for your reporting of the news. beyond occasionally being jealous that And I know I’m far from alone in these
my doctor friend ate a taco salad every kinds of habits. According to one study
PAUL GOSAR day for lunch. Mmm. conducted in Great Britain by Whole
U.S. representative for Arizona
Life continued, Foods Market, al-
10 years passed, SEBASTIAN COMAN PHOTOGRAPHY/UNSPLASH most  33 percent
and I picked up a of us eat the same
copy of Tim Ferris’s lunch every day.
book “The 4-Hour Here’s the real-
Body.” ity: We tend to
In his chapter on eat many of the
“Rapid Fat Loss,” same foods over
he offered a pass- and over again.
ing sentence when And yet, we con-
asked about bore- tend that variety
dom with the lim- is the spice of life.
ited food options We are inundated
in his prescribed with advertising
diet: “Most people messages from
vastly overestimate childhood on-
the variety of their ward that urge
meals.” us toward what is
My mind imme- new, novel, and
diately raced back upgraded. We are
to my role models taught that stick-
in Wisconsin from We tend to overvalue variety and indul- ing with the same
so many years ago, gence, which can create unrealistic thing, whether it
both of whom had expectations for mealtime. More impor- be fashion or food,
chosen to eat the tant than our food experience is our is all but uncouth.
same meal every experience connecting with other people. We think repeti-
day for lunch. They tion reflects poorly
had discovered a on how cultured
routine that worked well for them. or creative we are, that it says something
Rather than fighting against routine about how sophisticated our palate or
in their diet, they had embraced the adventurous our spirit. Instagram and
practice. advertising encourage us to want for
It’s worth noting that this isn’t an ar- something new every day, whether that
ticle about nutrition, it’s an article about be meal or material item.
the patterns of our daily lives and how But that message overlooks the real
to create these more consciously for our benefit of leaning into the reality that
own well-being. While some meals are we crave stability in our meals. There is
certainly healthier to repeat daily than something tried and true in eating the
others, this article is about the benefits same side with soup. And that truth shows
of simplicity in our lives. in the fact that most of us have a stable
of staple meals we trot out regularly.

Why You Should Say Yes

Instagram and to Meal Routine
Speaking at a conference several years
advertising encourage ago, I was asked by a mother how to keep
us to want for down food waste and costs in her home.
I was already a convert to meal rep-
something new every etition, so I answered: “Accept the fact
that you eat less variety of foods than
day, whether that be a you think. Don’t fight against it. Don’t
meal or material item. believe society’s pressure that you need
to be dreaming up something new for
every meal. Find your family’s favor-
You Could Already Be There ite meals and serve them often. You’ll
As a writer and overall promoter of the lower your monthly food costs, waste,
benefits of minimalism, I have often and time spent in preparation.”

Men’s Versatile Polo

seen how people overestimate the num-
ber of material possessions they need.
So when I read the sentence in Tim’s
book that “most people vastly overes-
timate the variety of their meals,” I be-
Of course, if your recycling is over-
flowing with processed food packages,
you will want to incrementally convert
your family toward more fruit, vegeta-
bles, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean

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lieved it.
I have seen “overestimating variety”
to be true in clothing, entertainment,
save 10% off your first order. books, linens, and any number of other
examples. Why not food?
The Pareto principle is proven true
over and over again—roughly 80 per-
www.ShenYunDancer.com cent of the effects come from 20 percent
of the causes.
proteins. But regardless of that, consider
the benefits to us (and our families) of
establishing a regular meal rotation:
1. Money savings. When you begin to
establish a weekly routine of your fam-
ily’s favorite meals, you save money by
wasting less, learning the correct por-
tion size, recognizing sales and good
 MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021 B3
MONKEY BUSINESS IMAGES/SHUTTERSTOCK

If You Want
Better
Sleep, Avoid
the Late-
Night Snack
MAT LECOMPTE

When you settle into a movie or watch your

prices, and knowing which spices or
condiments to purchase.
2. Time savings. Not only does a weekly
routine of meals save time hunting for
recipes or new ideas, but we become
more and more efficient at preparing
each of the meals that we do enjoy.
This “time saved” may be more pre-
cious during specific seasons of life
(when you have young children at home,
for example), but extra time in the day
can be appreciated by everyone.
3. Better health. A thought-out and in-
tentional routine of meals offers greater
opportunity to align our diets with nu-
tritional recommendations.
4. Less food waste.  According to the
USDA, about 133 billion pounds of food
is wasted each year in the United States.
That’s about 364 million pounds a day,
equivalent to about a pound of food, or
one-third of the daily calories that each
American consumes. This waste takes a
toll on our household budget.
5. Weight control. Many people who eat
the same lunch every day attest that the
practice is helpful in weight control,
contending they eat less because of it.
It’s called “school cafeteria syndrome,”
and according to researchers, it really
works in reducing the amount of food
we eat. When you eat to appease your
hunger and fuel your body, rather than
entertain your taste buds, you’ll natu-
rally eat a more appropriate amount.
6. Fewer failed recipes. As I will men-
tion in a moment, there’s still room for
trying new foods and recipes, and I rec-
ommend it with young kids at home. But
establishing a stable routine of meals
each week and experimenting with few-
er new recipes means fewer failed meals.
That means avoiding the dishearten-
ing experience of spending hours pre-
paring a meal, only to have it flop at the
dinner table.
7. Benefits for kids. The more children
see specific foods in front of them, the
more likely they are to learn to enjoy
them. Creating a routine certainly
doesn’t eliminate all “eat your vegeta-
bles” negotiations at the dinner table,
able,
but people generallyy appreci-
ate things more when they
become more familiar.
miliar.
Meal repetition also
sets an expectation on
and can help compell a
favorite team play, you might want to hold
off on the snacks. It’s not so much about
the extra calories but about how it could
impact sleep.
Eating in the evening doesn’t help you
sleep, even if it makes you feel tired. A big
A weekly dinner at 8 p.m. will likely lead to tossing
pizza night lets and turning until 4 a.m. Even a snack can
everyone get really hold you back from getting some good
2. Determine your good at making a shuteye.
family’s favorites. family favorite and Your body naturally starts to prepare
Embracing a Take each person offers a doughy for sleep when the sun starts going down,
meal routine into account. Are platform to try whether or not you realize it. Your micro-
there specific meals new things. biome, hormones, and organs all enter a
(whether that everybody likes? sleep-preparation phase so that you can
If so, those are obvious enter unencumbered slumber each night.
daily or places to start establishing
weekly) a routine. I’d recommend identifying
five or six family favorites.
promotes If you can’t get that much agreement The first step is to try
in your family, be sure to think about
simplicity, those with pickier palates and what ac- to avoid a big calorie
reduces stress commodations can be made.
dump within about
and anxiety, 3. Write out a weekly schedule.  three hours of bedtime.
removes Take into account your weekly commit-
ments. Does someone have volleyball
decision practice on Tuesday night? Youth group Filling up the tank with a bunch of calo-
on Wednesday? Or a business meet- ries, however, sends the complete opposite
fatigue, and ing on Monday? Factor in both the time signal. So, even though you may feel physi-
frees us to you have to prepare and the time to sit cally and mentally tired, the digestion and
down and eat. absorption of nutrients and calories turn
pursue more My family loves tacos on Tuesdays. your body back up to full blast.
And we serve pizza on Sunday eve- Think of it this way: You’ve just filled up
important nings, because my son typically works with gas. But unlike your vehicle, you can’t
things than late and my wife and I take my daughter just turn it off. You’re up and running until
to church that night. the food has been processed.
answering
‘What’s for 4. Don’t sacrifice health.
Eating foods you enjoy doesn’t mean
dinner?’ sacrificing healthy habits. If you’re A good strategy is to go
serving pizza or pasta, pack it with
vegetables, or add some to the side. If heavy on your calories
you encounter resistance, you incre-
mentally upgrade the nutrient density
through the morning
of your weekly pizza over time, another and afternoon, then light
benefit of repetition.
I actually find it easier to eat well for dinner.
when a routine is established because
we intentionally include fruits and veg- What can you do? The first step is to try
etables every evening. to avoid a big calorie dump within about
three hours of bedtime. You can plan to
5. Don’t sacrifice eat dinner a little bit earlier, or if that isn’t
variety for simplicity. an option, you can alter how you consume
Rare is the family for whom a week’s calories during the day.
schedule doesn’t vary. Variety in meals A good strategy is to go heavy on your
is inevitable, and it can also be sched- calories through the morning and after-
uled. You can decide that every Monday noon, then light for dinner. Front-loading
is new-recipe day, or you can choose calories may help you get better sleep.
variety when you eat out. If you are feeling peckish in the evening,
Establishing a meal routine five nights it’s best to turn to nutritious and easily di-
of the week still leaves room for plenty gestible options. Things like carrot sticks,
of gustatory variety. fruit, or even a little bit of air-popped pop-
corn are good options.
6. Proc
Proceed with trial, Sleep trouble can be caused by a variety of
error, and adjustments.
err factors, and food timing is certainly one of
If you discover that one meal them. Try minding your meal times during
takes
t longer to prepare than the day for better sleep at night.
you
y want, change it. If one
meal is no longer enjoyed by Mat Lecompte is a freelance health and
your
y family, pick a new one. wellness journalist. This article was first
If you discover that a routine published on Bel Marra Health.
works well for one month
w DC STUDIO/SHUTTERSTOCK

picky child to expand d but then you want to make

their palate.
8. Greater simplicity.  y.  CK
Embracing a meal rou- u-
tine (whether daily orr
weekly) promotes simplic- c-
ity, reduces stress and anxi-
xi-
ety, removes decision fatigue,
igue,
and frees us to pursue more re important
things than answering “Wh “What’s for
dinner?”
How to Implement
a Meal Rotation
How do we go about this in our own
unique families? Here are some
thoughts to get you started:
1. Start on your own.  eat—and you’ll save money and time
If you eat lunch every day at the office,
it’s easy to choose your one or two fa-
vorite meals and repeat them each day.
The same is true for breakfast if you eat
it alone. As mentioned above, break-
fast and lunch are where I embrace the
most routine.
RA /S H UT TE
KHY T
MA XIM
While eating some
meals too often can be
unhealthy, those that
offer a good variety of
vegetables, protein,
and carbohydrates are
good to repeat.
b
a new one, go for it.
The goal is to find some-
Th
thing
thin that works for your
R S TO
family and saves you time and
money.
money
Eat. Repeat.
One of my favorite things about mini-
malism is that removing unneeded
things typically leaves me with bet-
ter stuff, whether that be meals or
shoes. Minimalism also removes dis-
traction, and gives me more money,
time, energy, and peace.
We all have our favorite foods. Accept
that and embrace eating the foods you
most enjoy over and over again. You’ll
be grateful every time you sit down to
along the way.
Joshua Becker is an author, public
speaker, and the founder and editor
of Becoming Minimalist, where he Your body doesn’t store food for later. It
inspires others to live more by owning digests it all right away, in a process that can
less. Visit BecomingMinimalist.com keep you awake.
B4 MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021

MINDSET MATTERS

How Anxiety Hides in Your Habits

Before trying tips to lower your anxiety, a new book encourages you
to understand your anxiety routines
Continued from B1
TRIGGER: Feel anxious
BEHAVIOR: Worry (ruminate on what’s
wrong, what could go wrong, etc.)
RESULT: Feel more anxious
What reward could we possibly get out of
a self-perpetuating anxiety cycle? Well,
Brewer says, the act of worrying can
sometimes feel good—or at least better
than just sitting with our anxiety. Worry-
ing sometimes (rarely) allows us to come
up with solutions, which makes it seem
productive. We think we’re solving prob-
lems. Some of us are afraid we’ll be un-
prepared for the future if we don’t worry,
and worry gives us a sense of control,
even when all we do is churn through the
same fears over and over.
One of the studies Brewer contrib-
uted to (currently under peer review),
explored the effects of mindfulness-
based stress reduction among a group
of doctors. The intervention used an
app to help doctors become aware of
worry habit loops. For the doctors, this
awareness reduced their burnout and
cynicism.
But mapping out your habits is just the
first step.
STEP 2 Work With
Your Brain’s Reward System
As Brewer says, our brain stores a “re-
ward value” for different people, places,
and things we encounter. The more
rewarding our brain thinks a behavior is,
the stronger the habit around it will be.
But reward values can become skewed
or outdated. For example, we might have
developed a passion for cake as an anx-
ious teen—but in adulthood, we now find
ourselves in a queasy sugar coma after
three slices.
“The only sustainable way to change
a habit is to update its reward value,”
writes Brewer. That means taking a
fresh look at how a habit is affecting us
now. And we need to do this over and
over, each time we repeat the habit in
our daily life, until our brain updates its
reward value and stops being drawn to
the habit.
What does this mean in practice?
ness in your chest, the lump in your
throat, how little you get done at work
that afternoon.
The good thing about this approach
is that moments of anxiety become an
opportunity to learn about yourself,
not something to be afraid of, and not a
failure in your quest for calm. (Self-judg-
ment, apparently, seems to go hand-in-
hand with anxiety.)
If you have trouble being aware of hab-
its in real time, you can also look back on
your day or your week to see the effects
of a particular behavior. If your anxiety
made you snap at your partner, how did
that feel? Rather than analyzing it, just
try to re-experience it in your body.
Over time, Brewer suggests, our brain
will naturally become disenchanted
with our anxiety habits without us hav-
ing to use so much willpower, allowing
more space for new habits to form.
STEP 3 Create New Habits
This step is where most other advice
begins: the healthy habits and behaviors
that we want to engage in. But it makes
sense that there isn’t much room for
these new behaviors until our brains
detach from the old ones.
Brewer suggests a variety of mindful-
ness-related behaviors that you could in-
sert into your habit loops when a trigger
arises, many of which may be familiar to
you already:
r
Curiosity and mindfulness: Rather
than judging yourself for being anx-
ious, or getting obsessed about where
your anxiety is coming from, just get
curious. What does it feel like, and
where? How does it change? Brewer
even recommends saying “Hmmm!”
out loud to yourself, to encourage that
sense of curiosity.
r
Breathing: Tune in to the breathing sen-
sations in your body. Breathe into places
where anxiety shows up, and breathe out
anxiety. See how things change.
r
RAIN: This is a mindfulness practice
where you Recognize and relax into
Our brain is the present moment; Accept and allow
it to be there; Investigate your bodily
attracted to sensations, emotions, and thoughts;
these anxiety and Note what is happening.
r
Noting: This is a practice of labeling
habits because what experiences are predominant in
they create some your mind moment to moment, includ-
ing any of your senses (hearing, touch,
sense of reward. sight), thinking, or feeling.
r
Loving kindness: The practice of send-
ing kind, caring thoughts to people,
including yourself, and feeling that
sense of warmth in your body.
To reinforce these habits, Brewer sug-
gests you can apply techniques from step
2—but this time, instead of observing
the detrimental effects, you observe how
good it feels in your body to be curious or
generate loving feelings.
Brewer is a habit expert—much of his re-
search has focused on smoking and eat-
ing disorders. Although his book is about
anxiety, the overall framework could apply
to many habits in our lives. His insights re-
veal why so many of our good intentions to
exercise, meditate, and otherwise improve
don’t translate into action. Brewer gives us
tools we can use to work with our brains,
rather than have our brains work according
to anxiety-creating habits.
Kira M. Newman is the managing editor
of Greater Good. Her work has been pub-
lished in outlets including The Washing-
ton Post, Mindful magazine, Social Media
Monthly, and Tech.co, and she is the
co-editor of The Gratitude Project.  This
article was originally published in Greater
Good online magazine.
Take a moment
MITCHELL HARTLEY/UNSPLASH

Once you’ve identified your habits that to probe how

support anxiety, you need to be mind- anxiety feels in
ful when they occur. If you’re anxious your body.
and you start worrying about the future,
make a mental note; observe the tight-

Dry Eye Disease Harms More Than Vision

Study links dry eye disease with broader health concerns and other conditions
FIZKES/SHUTTERSTOCK

SARAH COWNLEY tion and work productivity. The findings

Patients suffering from dry eye disease face
vision problems, and new research shows
Dry eye how this condition can also harm physical
disease causes and mental health. The study shows that
a sensation of these patients have a lower quality of life
grittiness in the compared to those without symptoms.
eye. Dry eye disease is a condition that can af-
fect people of any age but is most prevalent
in women and older people. It’s estimated
that up to a third of adults over the age
of 65 have the condition, which includes
symptoms such as irritation and redness
in the eyes, blurred vision, and a sensation
of grittiness in the eye.
This new study, led by the University of
Southampton, explored how dry eye dis-
ease affects the lives of adults in the UK.
It included 1,000 patients with the condi-
tion and 1,000 without. All patients were
required to answer a questionnaire from
the National Eye Institute about their visual
function and a EuroQol questionnaire on
health-related quality of life. Participants
who declared that they had experienced
dry eye were required to answer further
questions to assess the severity of their
symptoms.
It was found that a higher proportion of
participants with dry eye disease had prob-
lems with mobility and experienced more
difficulties in their day-to-day activities
People with dry eye disease compared to patients without the condi-
have problems carrying out tion. The study also revealed that they were
more likely to suffer from depression and
daily activities and work anxiety.
productivity due to adverse Patients with the most severe symptoms
were more likely to report a negative im-
effects on visual function. pact on their social and emotional func-
suggest people with dry eye disease have
problems carrying out daily activities and
work productivity due to adverse effects on
visual function.
Dr. Parwez Hossain, who led the study,
said: “This study provided some very use-
ful information on the burden that dry eye
disease places on patients. As well as con-
firming the impact on work and social lives,
we also discovered that the extent of the
effects are consistent with the severity of
symptoms. We also found that participants
with dry eye disease symptoms were a lot
more likely to suffer from other comorbidi-
ties, twice as many suffered from arthritis,
hearing loss or irritable bowel disease com-
pared to the cohort without symptoms.”
Researchers do note that some environ-
mental factors could impact the symp-
toms patients with dry eye disease may
encounter. While all participants in the
study reported similar digital screen use
levels and reading, those with dry eye
disease symptoms reported more expo-
sure to environmental factors such as air
conditioning, forced heating, or air pollu-
tion. More research is needed to confirm
whether these factors could contribute to
the disease or be noticed more by sufferers.
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.
 MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
Pandemic
Babies Raise
Worrying
Questions
Researchers call for
greater focus on how
COVID-19 has affected
child development
Babies
need
stimulation,
B
social contact,
abies born after and responsive
March 11, 2020, caregiving.
will have only known
a world in the grip of a
pandemic. They may never
have met anyone who isn’t their parent,
or they may only ever have seen their
grandparents from a distance. They cer-
tainly will not have had the same oppor-
tunities to interact with other children as
those born in the years before.
What are the implications for these
pandemic children? As researchers,
while we do think that most babies
will have had an opportunity to thrive,
there’s still a lot we don’t know, and
we are clear that the first months and
years of life are vitally important for a
child’s long-term health, development,
and well-being.
Development takes place at an extraor-
dinary rate during a baby’s first year
when the brain doubles in size. This early
development depends crucially on ex-
perience, and particularly social experi-
ence, which stimulates, tunes, and hones
the brain’s unfolding architecture.
A stimulating, varied, and responsive
environment supports the development
of language, cognition, and emotional
and social competencies. This depen-
dence on environmental input makes the
brain exquisitely flexible and capable of
adaptation. But, by the same token, it also
means that babies are highly susceptible
to the negative impacts of adversity.
One thing we also know with great
certainty is that parental stress and men-
tal health problems pose serious risks to
children’s later development, affecting
their language and cognitive develop-
ment, their emotional well-being, and
putting them at risk of depression and
anxiety themselves.
One thing we also
know with great
certainty is that
parental stress
and mental health
problems pose serious
risks to children’s
later development.
Unfortunately, support systems for
babies and their families have been pro-
foundly disrupted by the pandemic. As is
sadly often the case, it’s the most vulner-
able and disadvantaged children who
depend on these services and support
networks the most.
For example, many health visitors, who
provide advice and resources and who
are often the main source of support and
connection to health services for fami-
lies with young babies, have been rede-
ployed into the frontline COVID-19 re-
sponse during the pandemic. Those who
remained have reported that their work
B5
ONJIRA LEIBE/SHUTTERSTOCK
with families was considerably most common factor leading a child to
affected by very high caseloads be referred to a child protection service.
and the barriers created by social Development We sadly under-invest in the most vul-
distancing measures. takes nerable children at the best of times. We
Many expressed concerns about their should be extremely concerned about
ability to monitor children’s develop- place at an them in times like these.
ment and refer families to specialist sup-
port services when parents were experi- extraordinary The Baby Blind Spot
encing mental health problems. rate during Babies need stimulation, social contact,
On top of that, friends and family have and responsive caregiving, and all of
had their ability to visit loved ones and a baby’s first these will have been affected during
their babies drastically curtailed. year. the pandemic in complex ways, but we
Social support from friends, family, lack good evidence about how this is
community groups, and professionals playing out.
is normally considered vital not only Oxford Brookes University has conduct-
because it provides infants with variety, ed a study focused on how the pandemic
stimulation, and opportunities for learn- is affecting children of the youngest ages,
ing, but also because it’s good for the and in due course will provide us with
well-being of parents, on whom babies much-needed insights. But it’s a concern
are so dependent. that even now, a year in, we have very
So in these circumstances, what can poor information about how babies and
parents do to help their babies? The evi- preschoolers have been affected by the
dence suggests that the key to optimal momentous events that have taken place.
development is play and stimulation, This highlights a key point: Despite babies
those back-and-forth interactions be- being among the most vulnerable in society
tween caregivers and babies. and most dependent on nurturing care and
Following a child’s lead when they stimulation, their needs are almost always
take an interest in some item, nam- the last to be noticed. The recent Working
ing objects, talking, laughing, singing, for Babies report called this the “baby blind-
and reading—all simple, no-to-low cost spot” with good reason.
activities—keep babies learning and At this point in the pandemic, we are
developing even when the world outside desperately in need of good data to under-
is in difficulty. stand how babies have been affected and
may continue to be affected in the coming
Babies at Risk years. It’s clear that the time has come to
There are good reasons to be concerned step up in our responsibility for all of the
about infant and early child develop- babies born into these strange times.
ment during this time and, like so many
other things, these risks will not be The key to optimal child
Sunil Bhopal is an academic clinical lecturer
evenly distributed. development is play and in pediatrics at Newcastle University in the
The lack of support structures, the stimulation, those back- UK, and Pasco Fearon is the chair of devel-
economic pressures, and the drastic and-forth interactions opmental psychopathology at the University
reduction in professional contact with between caregivers and of California–Los Angeles. This article was
health visitors and social workers during babies. first published on The Conversation. 
the pandemic is almost certainly plac-
TRIOCEAN/SHUTTERSTOCK
ing large numbers of babies at greatly
increased risk of harm, including risk of
maltreatment and even death.
The effects of abuse on child develop-
ment are profound and long-lasting,
including long-term physical disability,
emotional distress, and mental health
concerns. To give a striking exam-
ple, nearly half of all adult mental health
conditions are associated with a history
of childhood maltreatment.
In normal times, maltreatment affects
approximately 12 percent to 23 percent of
children. Children in economically dis-
advantaged circumstances are five times
more likely to be subjected to abuse. In
the United Kingdom, 51,510 children
were on a child protection plan in March
2020 when the pandemic began.
During the pandemic, local authori-
ties reported more than 300 serious
incidents of injury and death involving
children between April and October
2020—up by a fifth from the same time
in 2019. An increased proportion (almost
40 percent) involved children under the
age of 1.
We also know that rates of domestic
violence have increased greatly during
the pandemic and babies are profoundly
affected by this.
Indeed, domestic violence is the single
B6
MADE TO MOVE
Exercise Spurs Molecular Change
Continued from B1
‘Omics’ Reveals
Molecular Choreography
The term “omics” is used in the field of
biological sciences to describe the study of
large sets of biological molecules. Pro-
teomics, for instance, refers to the study of
proteins within a cell, while metabolomics
refers to molecules in the blood that influ-
ence metabolism, and genomics delves
into molecules related to gene expression.
While previous omics studies have looked
into how exercise affects specific areas,
such as metabolomics, the featured study,
published in Cell, took it a step further.
“We performed longitudinal multi-
omic profiling of plasma and periph-
eral blood mononuclear cells including
metabolome, lipidome, immunome,
proteome, and transcriptome from 36
well-characterized volunteers, before
and after a controlled bout of symptom-
limited exercise,” the researchers stated.
In other words, researchers look at
molecular changes across a large swath
of the body’s vast biochemical systems
before and after 36 people exercised.
This is the most comprehensive study
to date of the molecular changes that
occur in your body due to exercise,
providing an unprecedented glimpse
into the details of the body’s physiologi-
cal response. The study demonstrated
that “an orchestrated choreography of
biological processes” occur, including
those relating to:
r
Energy metabolism
r
Oxidative stress
r
Inflammation
r
Tissue repair
r
Growth factor response
The study subjects were between the
ages of 40 and 75, with a mix of fitness
levels and health. Some participants
were insulin resistant. The volunteers
completed a treadmill endurance test
lasting about eight to 12 minutes, with
blood draws occurring before and two
minutes after the session, along with 15,
30, and 60 minutes later.
Blood draws also took place before and after
a period of rest, which acted as the control.
“Everybody knows exercise is good for you,
but we really don’t know what drives that at
a molecular level,” Michael Snyder, professor
and chair of genetics at Stanford University,
said in a statement. “Our goal at the outset
was to conduct a highly comprehensive
analysis of what’s happening in the body just
after exercising.”
In all, 17,662 molecules were measured,
9,815 of which changed in response to
exercise, with some going up and oth-
ers going down. Certain molecules also
spiked immediately after exercise then
quickly dropped, while others remained
heightened for an hour.
“It was like a symphony,” Snyder told
The New York Times. “First, you have the
brass section coming in, then the strings,
then all the sections joining in.”
Molecular Changes
Varied by Timing, Health Status
One intriguing finding was how different
the metabolic changes were in individu-
als depending on their health status, par-
ticularly relating to insulin resistance,
which plays a role in virtually all chronic
diseases. In those with insulin resis-
tance, a reduced inflammatory response
was noted, and there was a dampened
immune response after exercise.
Significant differences were also noted
depending on when the blood was
drawn, with the researchers describing
an “intense flurry of molecular activ-
ity” in the body in the first two minutes
post-exercise. In those first minutes, mo-
lecular markers of inflammation, tissue
healing, and oxidative stress, which is a
byproduct of metabolism, rose sharply.
Further, in the first couple of minutes,
molecular markers suggested the body
tended to metabolize amino acids for
energy, but then switched to the sugar
glucose at about 15 minutes after the
workout. “The body breaks down glyco-
gen [a form of stored glucose] as part of
its exercise recovery response, so that’s
why we see that spike a little later,” Sny-
der said.
Could a Blood Test Reveal
Your Level of Fitness?
A strong correlation was found among
a set of molecules and an individual’s
Exercise
science has
entered a new
era of molecular
biology.
Research shows
that exercising
for 15 minutes a
day lowers all-
cause mortality
by 14 percent
and extends life
expectancy by
three years.
A sample circuit-style workout,
developed by Brett Klika, a
performance coach for the
Human Performance Institute in
Orlando, Fla., and Chris Jordan,
director of exercise physiology
at the Human Performance
Institute, is as follows.
Each exercise is performed
for about 30 seconds with
10 seconds allowed for
transitions. This adds up to
an approximately seven-
minute workout, which may
be repeated in its entirety two
or three times. The exercises
should be done in the order
given, as they’re selected to
allow opposing muscle groups
to alternate between resting
and working. This gives an
example of how you can fit
exercise in even if you’re at
home and/or very short on time.
ŀ Jumping jacks (total body)
ŀ Wall sit (lower body)
ŀ Pushup (upper body)
ŀ Abdominal crunch (core)
ŀ Step-up onto chair (total
body)
ŀ Squat (lower body)
ŀ Triceps dip on chair (upper
body)
ŀ Plank (core)
ŀ High knees/running in
place (total body)
ŀ Lunge (lower body)
ŀ Pushup and rotation
(upper body)
ŀ Side plank (core)
aerobic fitness level, leading
the researchers to suggest it may
be possible to use a blood test to
monitor fitness level.
Thousands of molecules were correlat-
ed with aerobic fitness level, researchers
found, after looking at those who per-
formed better on a treadmill endurance
test. The test measured peak VO2 as a
proxy for aerobic fitness. This test mea-
sures your body’s ability to transport and
use oxygen.
Molecules linked to fitness also serve
as markers of immunity, metabolism,
and muscle activity.
“At this point, we don’t fully under-
stand the connection between some of
these markers and how they are related
to better fitness,” Snyder said. There is
also limited application of that insight,
should it develop, given that such mo-
lecular profiling would currently be too
expensive and extensive for doctors to
use in clinics.
However, with further research, it may
be possible to detect which biomarkers
are most useful for determining fit-
ness levels based on those that are most
highly correlated with peak VO2 results.
“It gave us the idea that we could de-
velop a test to predict someone’s level of
fitness,” study author Kévin Contrepois,
director of metabolomics and lipidomics
in Stanford’s Department of Genetics,
said. “Aerobic fitness is one of the best
measures of longevity, so a simple blood
test that can provide that information
would be valuable to personal health
monitoring.”
While other fitness tests exist—grip
strength, for instance, may be associ-
ated with your risk of heart attack and
stroke—a blood test for fitness would al-
low you to monitor how changes in your
fitness routine are working, and adjust
accordingly.
Extend Your Lifespan
in Just Minutes a Day
The featured study’s findings are impres-
sive, in part because of the magnitude of
changes prompted by just one brief session
of exercise. “I had thought, it’s only about
nine minutes of exercise, how much is
going to change?” Snyder said. “A lot, as it
turns out.”
In terms of “bang for your buck” when
it comes to your health, exercise is one of
the most effective uses of time. Some of the
biochemical changes induced by exercise
are already well established and may affect
cancer risk and the following pathways:
r
Insulin-like growth factor
r
Epigenetic effects on gene expression
and DNA repair
r
HIF 1-alpha
r
Oxidative stress and antioxidant
pathways
r
Heat shock proteins
r
Testosterone
r
Negative regulator of myostatin
r
Immunity
r
Chronic inflammation and
prostaglandins
r
Energy metabolism
Insulin resistance research has also
shown that exercising for 15 minutes
a day, or an average of 92 minutes per
week, lowers all-cause mortality by 14
percent and extends life expectancy by
three years compared to being inactive.
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
OLENA YAKOBCHUK/SHUTTERSTOCK
This was true even among people with
risk factors for cardiovascular disease,
and every additional 15 minutes of daily
exercise reduced all-cause mortality by
another 4 percent.
On the other hand, people who were
inactive had a 17 percent increased risk
of mortality even compared with those
who exercised for just 15 minutes a day.
This means that you don’t have to log
two hours on the treadmill or at the
gym to get meaningful results—ben-
eficial changes happen in far less time.
Researchers are still pinning down the
extent of these changes, but when they
encompass 9,815 molecules, suffice it to
say they’re significant.
Lack of time is one of the most common
excuses used for not exercising, but the
changes in the featured study occurred
in about 10 minutes. Other studies have
found exercise benefits after just seven
minutes of moderate-intensity activ-
ity, including improvements in muscle
strength, endurance, and aerobic fitness.
A New Era of Exercise Science
As researchers delve deeper into how
molecular biology intersects with exer-
cise physiology, there will be exciting
advancements in understanding how
exercise is crucial to human health.
Exercise science has entered a new era,
and using metabolomics and other omics
technologies, researchers will likely be
able to advance to more personalized
exercise interventions rather than generic
recommendations like “get at least 150
minutes of exercise per week.”
Already, more specialized techniques
such as blood flow restriction (BFR)
training are being adopted by the NFL
and other major professional sports or-
ganizations for recovery and rehabilita-
tion. BFR training improves strength and
builds muscle using very light weights,
while, metabolically, it decreases your
risk for sarcopenia and most other age-
related diseases, making it particularly
useful for the elderly.
Other types of exercise, like yoga,
with its unique combination of physical
movement, breathwork, and meditation,
may be particularly beneficial for brain
function, while other more targeted exer-
cises, like deadlifts, also have their place.
The Stanford University researchers are
following up on their study with plans
to establish whether molecular data
could be used to determine which types
of exercise, such as resistance or endur-
ance training, are best for individuals, as
certain people may have higher aerobic
endurance, for instance, while others
have a molecular profile that may favor a
different type of training.
For now, since such individualized target-
ing isn’t available, the important take-home
message to remember is just how immense
the effect of exercise is on your body at
an individual level. It’s important to take
advantage of its massive health-boosting
potential by getting active and making
physical fitness a regular part of your life.
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
 MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
What Is Asparagus Good For?
This delicious perennial offers delicate flavors and exceptional nutrition
A
JOSEPH MERCOLA
sparagus officinalis belongs to a
large genus of plants grown for
ornamental purposes, though
it’s one of the few members of
this family that’s cultivated for
food. Since its domestication, asparagus
has become a favorite for its sweet flavor
and tender quality, which allows it to be
prepared in various ways. You can steam,
poach, roast, or add a handful of its stalks
to soups and frittatas for added texture.
Health Benefits of Asparagus
Asparagus is one of the first vegetables to
come up each spring. The part we eat of
this perennial plant is the shoot it sends
up that will eventually go to seed. If you
keep breaking off the shoots, the plant
keeps trying to go to seed and sends up
more shoots. Aside from its delectable
taste, asparagus offers numerous vita-
mins and minerals, including calcium,
folate, iron, magnesium, phosphorus,
potassium, and vitamins A, K, and C. It
also contains trace amounts of niacin
and vitamin E. Because of these nutri-
ents, adding asparagus to your diet may
offer the following benefits:
 Improved cardiovascular health—In a
2017 study from Nutrients, it was stated
that numerous vegetables (including
asparagus) may protect and support
heart health. This may be due to the high
amounts of dietary fiber and vitamins in
these vegetables.
Healthier fetal development—As one
of the best plant-based sources of folate,
asparagus may help lower the risk of
miscarriage and neural tube defects in
unborn children.
Lower osteoporosis risk—Asparagus
contains considerable amounts of both
Amt. Per Serving
CALORIES
TOTAL FAT
SATURATED FAT
CHOLESTEROL
SODIUM
TOTAL CARBOHYDRATES
DIETARY FIBER
SUGAR
PROTEIN
Vitamin A 50 ЂG | Vitamin C
Calcium 23 SG | Iron
Add Fiber to Beat Diverticulitis
MAT LECOMPTE
Diverticulitis can be excruciatingly pain-
ful. But adding some bulk to your diet may
help tame symptoms and stop them from
occurring. It’s possible that bulk may pre-
vent diverticulitis from ever affecting you.
What’s bulk? The one and only fiber.
Diverticulitis is when little pouches that
grow along your intestines—called diver-
ticula—become infected and inflamed. It’s
entirely possible that you’ve got diverticula
and don’t even know it. Often, they are
harmless and go completely undetected.
Other times, they can turn into diverticu-
litis that can result in painful flare-ups or
continuous pain.
Early signs that you may have diverticula
include constipation, diarrhea, bloating,
thin stools, and pain in the belly. Diverticu-
litis would be marked by these symptoms
in addition to abdominal pain.
Although there are a host of risk factors
for diverticulitis, including weight and
activity levels, one potential fix is adding
more fiber to your diet. Fiber is an indigest-
ible compound in plant-based foods that
helps add bulk to stool and helps it pass
vitamin K and calcium, nutrients es-
sential in maintaining bone health.
Adequate levels of vitamin K in the body
ensures effective absorption of calcium,
lowering the risk for bone fractures.
Studies Done on Asparagus
The active components of asparagus
have been the subject of numer-
ous scientific studies, mainly fo-
cusing on steroidal saponin con-
tent. In a 1997 study from Planta
Medica, researchers isolated two
oligofurostanosides from aspara-
gus seeds, which were found to
have cytotoxic effects on human
leukemia cells. This coincides with a
2010 study published in Phytochemistry
Reviews, where triterpene and steroid
saponins triggered apoptosis (pro-
grammed cell death) in tumor cells and
cytoskeleton disintegration.
Asparagus is
one of the first
vegetables to come
up each spring.
Asparagus officinalis extracts may
also protect against oxidative stress and
liver and kidney damage as reported in
a 2018 animal study from Toxicology Re-
ports. Wistar rats were co-administered
bisphenol A (BPA) and asparagus offici-
nalis extract (AOE), with BPA inducing
oxidative stress in both the liver and
kidneys. AOE provided the rats with liver
and kidney tissue protection, signifi-
% Daily
Value*
22
0.22 g
0.048 g
0 mg
14 mg
4.11 g
2g
1.3 g
2.4 g
7.7 mg
0.91 mg
through your digestive system more easily.
If you have diverticulitis, of course, that
may sound like it can make things even
more painful. And it can. So, here’s the
process on how to do it with as little pain
as possible.
Flare-ups are often treated with a liquid
diet and rest. This hopefully results in less
stimulation and rubbing along the intesti-
nal wall to limit inflamed diverticula. Once
symptoms have resided, it’s time to start
slowly boosting fiber.
Easing back into a high-fiber diet is the
way to go. You would begin by going with
easily digestible low-fiber food. White
bread, eggs, and even some meat are
staples. Once the digestive system is re-
introduced to solid foods for a couple of
days, you can start increasing fiber.
Whole grains, fruits, and vegetables are
where you’ll get it. After a few days—and
even a slight bout of bloating and consti-
pation as your body adjusts—the fiber will
begin to soften and bulk up stool to help it
move through you.
The result, hopefully, is a lower risk for
painful flare-ups. Ultimately, you should be
aiming for 25 to 35 grams of fiber per day.
You are very lucky if you’ve never expe-
B7
cantly lowering the effects of BPA.
Asparagus is Asparagus stem extracts were found to
considered one of have dermatological benefits as well. A
the oldest cultivated
vegetables.
2018 study from Environmental Health
and Preventive Medicine shows that
asparagus extracts may help prevent
photo aging by inducing the expression
of HSP70 during UV-B irradiation.
Asparagus Fun Facts
Asparagus is considered one of the
oldest cultivated vegetables, with
the earliest documentation dating
back to 200 B.C., with Cato the Elder
discussing its culture and cultivation.
Pliny the Elder also noted that aspara-
gus needed “the most delicate attention”
when it came to its farming. It was first in-
troduced in North America in the 1700s by
European settlers, and is now cultivated
across the country in gardens.
Summary
The wealth of nutrients offered by as-
paragus is truly remarkable, especially
since it is so nutritionally balanced.
Ongoing studies are revealing that this
vegetable may have more benefits for the
human body than we’re currently aware
of. Luckily, it’s a tasty vegetable with a
long list of ways to prepare it, making it
an in-season favorite.
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
HELLORF ZCOOL/SHU
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
TTERSTOCK
originally published on Mercola.com.
References: For a full list of references,
please find this article at Theepochtimes.
com/author-dr-mercola
ASPARAGUS AND
AVOCADO SALAD
4 to 5 thick asparagus spears
1 avocado, halved, pitted, and peeled 16 fresh
mint leaves, chopped
1/2 lime
2 tablespoons coconut oil
Himalayan salt, to taste
PROCEDURE
Cut away about 2 inches of the base of each
asparagus spear.
Shave the entire asparagus into thin strips from
bottom to top with a vegetable peeler, reversing your
grip and rotating as necessary to shave as much as
possible.
Divide the asparagus strips among four salad plates.
Cut each avocado half into four sections. Place two
wedges on each salad.
Sprinkle the mint leaves. Squeeze lime juice over the
salad, drizzle evenly with the oil, and sprinkle with salt.
Recipe adapted from Epicurious
rienced the pain of diverticulitis. To keep
it that way, including more fiber in your
diet, getting more exercise, and limiting
processed foods may help. Whole grains, fruits, and
vegetables offer your
Mat Lecompte is a freelance health and body the fiber it needs to
wellness journalist. This article was first run well and reduce the
published on Bel Marra Health. pain of diverticulitis.
TATJANA BAIBAKOVA/SHUTTERSTOCK
B8
Nature Can Boost Teens’ Pandemic Well-Being
Outdoor activities offer children an important way to build mental resilience
LAURA OLENIACZ
O
utdoor play and nature-based
activities can help buffer
some of the harm the COV-
ID-19 pandemic has had on
the mental health of adoles-
cents, a new study suggests.
Researchers said the findings point to
outdoor play and nature-based activities
as a tool to help teenagers cope with major
stressors like the pandemic, as well as future
natural disasters and other global stressors.
They also underscore the mental health im-
plications of restricting outdoor recreation
opportunities for adolescents, and the need
to increase access to the outdoors.
“Families should be encouraged that
building patterns in outdoor recreation can
give kids tools to weather the storms to
come,” said Kathryn Stevenson, assistant
professor of parks, recreation, and tour-
ism management at North Carolina State
University and co-author of the paper in
the International Journal of Environmental Few of us could have
Research and Public Health. imagined that teenagers
“Things happen in life, and getting kids would one day be denied the
outside regularly is an easy way to build opportunity to walk outside
some mental resilience,” Stevenson said. with friends.
In a survey conducted from April 30 to
June 15, 2020, the researchers asked 624
children and teenagers between the ages
of 10 to 18 years to report their participation
in outdoor recreation both before the pan-
demic and after social distancing measures
went into effect across the United States.
They also asked participants about their
subjective well-being, a measure of hap-
piness, and mental health.
The findings reveal the pandemic had an
impact on the well-being of many teens in Children who
the survey, with nearly 52 percent report- got outside
ing declines in subjective well-being. The
researchers also saw declines in teens’ abil- both before
ity to get outside, with 64 percent report-
ing their outdoor activity participation fell
and during
during the early months of the pandemic. the pandemic
Despite these declines in outdoor activity
participation, nearly 77 percent of teens maintained
surveyed believed that spending time out- higher levels of
side helped them deal with stress associ-
ated with the COVID-19 pandemic. well-being.
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QDWXUDOO\IURPƓVKRURWKHUSODQWVDQGWKLVbFRPELQHGZLWK
RPHJDDFFRXQWVIRUPRUHWKDQb90%bRISURGXFWFRQWHQW
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KLJKHVWOHYHORIDQ\JUHHQSODQWPDNLQJSXUHKLJKFRQFHQWUDWLRQ
SRVVLEOH7KHSXUVODQHDQGSHULOODVHHGVDUHJURZQRQ6RXWK
.RUHDōVEHDXWLIXO+ZDQJPDHVDQ0RXQWDLQDQDUHDZKHUHXVHRI
FKHPLFDOIHUWLOL]HUVDQGSHVWLFLGHVDUHSURKLELWHG
WUDQVIDWDQGKRUPRQHVWKLVSURGXFWLVRUJDQLF
DQGQDWXUDO,WKDVQRƓVK\DIWHUWDVWHRUULVNRIRFHDQ
ERUQHFRQWDPLQDQWV,WLVDOVRQRQ*020DGHLQ.RUHD
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“We know that a lot of outdoor activities
that kids engage in happens during school,
in youth sports leagues or clubs, and those
things got put on hold during the pandem-
ic,” said lead author Brent Jackson, a gradu-
ate student in the Fisheries, Wildlife, and
Conservation Biology Program. “Based on
our study, they were getting outside less—
we think not being in school and having
those activities really contributed to that.”
Benefits Across the Board
When they broke down recreation by type,
the researchers saw participation in out-
door play activities such as sports, biking,
going for walks, runs, or skating declined
by 41.6 percent; nature-based activities
such as camping, hiking, fishing, hunt-
ing, and paddling dropped by 39.7 percent;
and outdoor family activities declined by
28.6 percent. In those early months of the
pandemic, about 60 percent of teens said
they spent time outside once a week or less.
“We saw declines in all three types of
outdoor recreation participation,” Jack-
son said. “Nature-based activities had the
lowest participation before and during the
pandemic, which may point to the need for
www.Puritang.com
MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021
more access to natural spaces in general.”
The results show a link between well-
being and outdoor recreation trends. They
also show that the negative impacts of the
pandemic affected teens’ well-being and
participation in outdoor recreation regard-
less of race, gender, age, income commu-
nity type, or geographic region.
Kids who didn’t get outside as much saw
declines in well-being, but those who got
outside both before and during the pandem-
ic maintained higher levels of well-being.
“This tells us that outdoor recreation can
promote well-being for kids when it hap-
pens, and can potentially take away from
well-being when it doesn’t,” Stevenson said.
Outdoor Play Can Do a World of Good
Teens who had high rates of outdoor play
before the pandemic were more resistant
to negative changes in social well-being.
Those who got outside frequently before
the pandemic were more likely to experi-
ence a lesser decline in well-being, regard-
less of participation during the pandemic.
And, for teens able to play outside or get
involved in nature-based activities during
the pandemic, their well-being was on par
with pre-pandemic levels.
“Kids who were able to continue partici-
pating in outdoor play and nature-based
activities had subjective well-being levels
that were similar to what they were before
the pandemic, but kids who weren’t able
to participate saw much greater declines,”
Jackson said.
The study’s findings also point to strat-
egies to help kids navigate future global
stressor events, as well as the importance of
ensuring access to outdoor recreation. They
help define the risks associated with poli-
cies that reduce kids’ ability to get outside.
“Going outside and participating in ac-
tivities that provide exposure to nature,
physical activity, and safe social interaction
during the pandemic were really power-
ful in terms of improving kids’ resilience,”
Jackson said.
This article was originally published by
NC State. Republished via Futurity.org
under Creative Commons License 4.0.
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