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WHITE HOUSE
In the News White House
NEWS

President Joe Biden says

Denies
that the U.S. Intelligence
Community believes that
Report That
COVID-19 was spread due to
a “laboratory accident.” ... A5
It’s Turning
An election auditor in Its Back on US
Windham, New Hampshire,
says that its review hasn’t Miners
found any evidence of “wide-
spread fraud.” ... A2
Biden administration will
support domestic mining
Tens of millions of Ameri- of critical minerals for EV
cans will encounter high gas-
oline prices as they travel over
batteries, officials said
Memorial Day weekend. ... A3 By EMEL AKAN

A white Florida farmer is

challenging part of the recent
COVID-19 stimulus law in fed-
eral court because it hands
out federal benefits based on
race. ... A2
The Senate has voted to
adopt an amendment that
bans the use of U.S. tax dol-
lars to fund “gain-of-func-
tion” research in China. ... A1
A federal judge has reject-
ed a motion made by CNN to
dismiss a defamation lawsuit
filed by Harvard University
law professor Alan Dershow-
itz. ... A4
A study projects that labor
unions could see an estimat-
ed increase of $9.3 billion in
dues from workers if the the
House-approved PRO Act
passes. ... A6
Republican lawmakers in
PANDEMIC
CCP, Media Face New Scrutiny After Both
Decried Lab Leak Theory as ‘Conspiracy’
Calls for new investigation into virus origin increase, with President Joe
Biden saying Intelligence Community divided on virus origin theory
By OMID GHOREISHI
WASHINGTON—The White House
reacted to a published report that
stated President Joe Biden, to please
environmentalists, is planning to
import most of the metals needed
for electric vehicle production in-
stead of sourcing from U.S. miners.
The P4 laboratory (L) on the campus of the Wuhan Institute
Efforts to ramp up domestic
of Virology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on May 27, 2020.
mining and refining have
met road blocks from
environmentalists and
some Democrats.
Reuters reported on May 25 that
the United States would source
metals for electric cars from ally
countries such as Canada, Aus-
tralia, and Brazil, citing two ad-
LAURENT GILLIERON/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES ministration officials with direct
May 26 when President Joe Biden knowledge of the matter. This was
issued a statement saying the U.S. contrary to what the Biden cam-

U
Arizona have moved to limit
the power of Arizona Secre-
tary of State Katie Hobbs. ...A6
The Beijing regime has
added a former U.S. religious
official to its sanctions list in
response to U.S. sanctions on
a Chinese official for his in-
volvement in persecuting Fa-
lun Gong practitioners. ... A8
A group of 30 House
Republicans is urging the
Pentagon chief to fight back
against “creeping left-wing
extremism” in the U.S. mili-
tary. ... A7
Department of Homeland
Secretary chief Alejandro
Mayorkas is planning to
make major adjustments to
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement. ... A3
Biden has defended his ad-
ministration’s decision to lift
sanctions on the Nord Stream
2 pipeline. ... A5
Several Republicans pre-
dict that former President
Donald Trump will make an-
other bid for the presidency
in 2024. ... A2
Belarus has released a
second video following the
arrests of Belarusian oppo-
sition journalist Roman Pro-
tasevich and his girlfriend,
Sofia Sapega. ... A11
OPINION
Mark Hendrickson: Guilt,
Condemnation, and Totalitar-
ian Punishment...A13
Michael Walsh: Israelis
Should Take the Lessons of
War to Heart...A16
Daniel Lacalle: Inflation,
Money, and Supply Bottle-
necks...A19
News Analysis
ntil very recently, any
suggestion of the pos-
sibility that a laboratory
leak led to the COVID-19
pandemic was struck down by
many media outlets as a “conspir-
acy theory.”
After increased calls for more
investigation into the origin of the
virus, a game-changer came on Continued on A9
PANDEMIC
Key House
Democrat Supports
Committee Probe
of CCP Virus
Origins
President Joe Biden asks
Intelligence Community to
work with other agencies to
investigate virus origins
By MARK TAPSCOTT
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said
on May 26 that she supports an in-
vestigation into the origins of the
CCP virus—also known as the nov-
el coronavirus—by the oversight
panel of the House Committee on
Energy and Commerce.
“I think it’s very important that we
investigate, especially if the virus
escaped from some lab somewhere
because that, of course, has implica-
tions for international health,” De-
Gette, who chairs the subcommit-
tee, said in response to comments
by Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas).
“Whatever we can do, I don’t
think China is ever going to turn
over documents to the committee,
Intelligence Community was divid-
ed on whether the virus emerged
from a natural source or from a lab
accident, noting that there was no
definitive conclusion at the time of
the statement.
The alternative to the natural
origin hypothesis received more Director General of the World Health
mainstream recognition after 18 Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebr-
prominent scientists published a eyesus at the agency’s headquarters in
CONGRESS.GOV VIA GETTY IMAGES
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) at the
U.S. Capitol in Washington on Feb.
11, 2021.
but we’re going to do whatever in-
vestigation that is appropriate.”
The Colorado Democrat said she
has spoken about such an investi-
gation with the ranking Republican
on the subcommittee for oversight,
Rep. Morgan Griffin of Virginia.
Burgess, who is a medical doctor,
also sits on the oversight panel.
The Texas Republican had just
noted that “this is a novel disease,
and the scientists were sometimes
Continued on A6
paign promised before the election.
“The plans will be a blow to U.S.
miners who had hoped Biden would
rely primarily on domestically
sourced metals,” the report stated.
The plan also conflicts with the
executive order signed last year by
former President Donald Trump to
expand and strengthen domestic
mining of rare earth minerals and
Geneva on May 24, 2021. Continued on A3
BIG TECH
District of Columbia Sues Amazon for
Alleged Antitrust Violations
By MATTHEW VADUM cording to The Wall Street Journal,
was close to completing a deal to
The District of Columbia filed an acquire MGM, the Hollywood mov-
antitrust lawsuit against online re- ie-making studio.
tailing giant Amazon, accusing the Amazon unlawfully uses price
Seattle-based company of using its agreements to stifle competition,
market power to harm consumers. District of Columbia Attorney Gen-
Amazon is the world’s largest on- eral Karl Racine, a Democrat, said
line retail platform. As of May 25, in a statement.
the company had a market capi- “Amazon has used its dominant
talization of $1.63 trillion, and ac- Continued on A4
CONGRESS
Senate Adopts GOP Amendment Banning US
Funding of China’s Gain-of-Function Cell Research
By MARK TAPSCOTT my Tuberville of Alabama,
Roger Marshall of Kansas,
An amendment to the Mike Braun of Indiana,
Endless Frontier Act that and Thom Tillis of North
would ban the use of U.S. Carolina.
tax dollars to fund “gain-of- “No funds made avail-
function” research in China able to any federal agency,
Sen.
was adopted by the Senate Rand Paul including the National In-
on a voice vote on May 25. (R-Ky.). stitutes for Health, may be
The amendment was in- used to conduct gain-of-
troduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) function research in China,” the
and co-sponsored by Republicans amendment said.
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tom- Continued on A7

FEATURES INDIA NATIONAL SECURITY

In Alaska, salmon means
Volunteers Provide Home-Cooked Meals for COVID-19
life. The stories of the fish and
of the people have been inter- Patients in India FCC ON
twined for generations. ...B1
By VENUS UPADHAYAYA
PICTURE COURTESY ANKITA SAHAY

Ankita Sahay, CHINESE

STATE-
Learn to make homemade
cheese, but don’t toss the founder of Seher,
NEW DELHI—Each of the a volunteer

BACKED
whey—cook it down into a
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FIRMS
COVID-19 closely—they had
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DON’T DELAY. to COVID-19
SUBSCRIBE TODAY. a friend or family member fall
patients and their “It is time to close this glaring
READEPOCH.COM ill during India’s first or second attendants in loophole,” FCC Commissioner
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Published in New York, not let depression beat them and Brendan Carr said.
Washington, Houston, Chicago,
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instead offered to cook for those Read more on A8
Continued on A10

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.
A2 | NATION
White Farmer
Sues Over ‘Racially
Discriminatory’
Stimulus Program
MATTHEW VADUM
A white Florida farmer is chal-
lenging part of the recent CO-
VID-19 stimulus law in federal
court because it hands out federal
benefits based on the color of a
farmer’s skin.
The civil rights lawsuit, Wynn
v. Vilsack, was filed in federal
court in Florida on May 18 by the
Sacramento, California-based
Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF),
a national public interest law firm.
Tom Vilsack is being sued in his
official capacity as U.S. Secretary
of Agriculture.
A steep drop in
beef prices and dif-
ficulty in finding
farm workers over
the past year re-
duced Wynn’s in-
come, nearly all of
which went toward
repaying federal
farm loans.
The plaintiff, Scott Wynn, is a
white man who has been pro-
ducing sweet potatoes, corn,
soybeans, peanuts, and cattle on
his own farm in Jennings, Florida,
since 2006.
Like many farmers, Wynn has
suffered economic harm as a result
of the CCP virus, which causes the
disease COVID-19. A steep drop in
beef prices and difficulty in finding
farm workers reduced his income
over the past year, nearly all of
which went toward repaying fed-
eral farm loans.
Signed into law March 11, the
American Rescue Plan Act, Pub-
lic Law 117-2, allows the federal
‘I Believe He’ll Run’: Buzz Grows Around
Trump 2024 Presidential Bid
JACK PHILLIPS
Several Republicans, including two
lawmakers, have predicted that for-
mer President Donald Trump will
indeed make another bid for the
presidency in 2024.
When asked during a Fox News
interview about Trump’s pros-
pects on May 25, Rep. Jim Jordan
(R-Ohio) said that “every time” he
has spoken to Trump, the former
commander-in-chief “says that he
wants to run.”
“He plans to run, I think, but he
hasn’t fully committed that yet. But
I certainly hope he does, because
no president has done more of what
he said he would do than President
Trump,” Jordan said. “Best presi-
dent I think we’ve ever had. Keep-
ing his word, doing what he said,
doing what he was elected to do.”
Jordan said that Trump is “the
kind of individual we need in the
White House” because he would
put “America’s interests first and
standing strong for the principles
that matter.”
Mark Meadows, a former Repub-
lican congressman and Trump’s
former chief of staff, agreed with
Jordan’s assessment.
“Here’s what I will say is, the
American people want him to run.
I believe he’ll run. And at the end
of the day, it’s a time for choos-
ing, and the American people will
choose Donald Trump,” Meadows
said on Fox News.
Trump hasn’t publicly indicat-
ed whether he would definitively
run for president. In a recent in-
terview, Trump suggested that he
wouldn’t make an announcement
government to distribute $1.9 tril-
lion in federal funds. Section 1005
of the act directs the secretary to
“provide a payment in an amount
up to 120 percent of the outstand-
ing indebtedness of each socially
disadvantaged farmer or rancher
as of January 1, 2021.”
Section 1005 “assumes farmers
and ranchers are socially disadvan-
taged for no other reason than their
membership in a racial group,” and
“categorically excludes other farm-
ers and ranchers from loan assis-
tance if they do not belong in a ‘so-
cially disadvantaged racial group,’”
according to the legal complaint.
The program allegedly violates
the Fifth Amendment’s due pro-
cess clause, which requires the
U.S. government to practice equal
protection.
Farmers and ranchers who are
black, American Indian/Alaska
Native, Hispanic, Asian, and Ha-
waiian/Pacific Islander are eligible
for loan assistance regardless of
whether they have suffered any
racial discrimination in obtaining
farm loans, farming, or elsewhere
and regardless of their present eco-
nomic circumstances.
PLF attorney Glenn Roper told
The Epoch Times in an interview
that the program, which he de-
scribed as “racially discrimina-
tory,” is unconstitutional.
“Whenever government is in-
volved in making racial distinc-
tions and drawing lines, distribut-
ing benefits, or imposing burdens
on the basis of an immutable
characteristic, that’s dangerous
and, in our view, unconstitution-
al,” Roper said.
“Supreme Court has held that if
government is making racial dis-
tinctions, it needs to pass what is
called strict scrutiny, which is the
most rigorous sort of evaluation
that the courts do. You have to have
a compelling governmental inter-
est in making racial distinctions,
President Donald Trump waves as he departs on the South Lawn of the White
House on Dec. 12, 2020.
Best president I
think we’ve ever had.
Rep. Jim Jordan
until after the 2022 midterm elec-
tions. After leaving office in Janu-
ary, he told news outlets that he
wanted to help Republicans re-
take the House and Senate.
“In my discussions with him,
he said his priority is to ensure
that we win the House and get
the Senate back—and I know he’s
working hard,” Rep. Devin Nunes
(R-Calif) told Newsmax, noting
that some polls have shown that
Trump would still have a signifi-
cant amount of GOP voter support
if he were to make another bid for
the White House.
“It’s a long time to 2024, and I
think the key will be for us to field
The Department of Agriculture in Washington.
Workers pick tomatoes at a farm owned and operated by Pacific Tomato Growers
in Immokalee, Fla., on Feb. 19, 2021.
and then it has to be narrowly tai-
lored so it is the most restrictive ap-
plication to get at that compelling
interest, and in our view, it doesn’t
meet either of those tests.”
The program brings to mind an
earlier program administered by
the U.S. Department of Agricul-
ture (USDA) that led to a class-
action lawsuit known as Pigford
v. Glickman, which was settled in
1999. Black farmers claimed they
were discriminated against by the
agency’s allocation of farm loans
and assistance.
The government agreed to pay
$50,000 to black claimants who
said the USDA loan administra-
AL DRAGO/GETTY IMAGES
really solid candidates across the
board and drive home election
victories,” Nunes said. “And then
if that happens, I think Donald
Trump would be well-positioned
to run in 2024.”
Trump is planning to unveil a new
social media website, according to
a May 25 statement posted on his
“From the Desk of Donald Trump”
website, which also accused cer-
tain news outlets of falsely report-
ing on the traffic going to the site.
“It is merely a way of communi-
cating until I decide on what the
future will be for the choice or es-
tablishment of a platform,” he said
of his “Desk” site.
Of a possible social media plat-
form, Trump said, “It will happen
soon,” which would come months
after his accounts on Twitter, Face-
book, and other tech platforms
were suspended following the Jan.
6 Capitol incident.
THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
AGNOSTICPREACHERSKID/PUBLIC DOMAIN VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
tors discriminated against them.
The proof required was minimal,
critics said, which led to fraud. In
2010, Congress appropriated $1.2
billion for claims that were filed
late, in addition to the estimated
$1 billion already paid out. Critics
said the Obama administration
dispensed settlement funds using
even looser evidentiary standards
than those that applied in the origi-
nal settlement.
The program in the American
Rescue Plan Act “is one of the clear-
est examples of a race-based pro-
gram that is not narrowly tailored
for the interest that it is supposedly
protecting,” Roper said.
New Hampshire Auditor Says Audit
Has Revealed No ‘Widespread Fraud’
JACK PHILLIPS
One of the election auditors in-
vestigating inconsistencies re-
garding local races in Windham,
New Hampshire, said that their
review hasn’t found any evidence
of “widespread fraud.”
“The original count, the re-
count, nothing has ever been
changing who gets elected,” said
Harri Hursti, one member of the
three-person team involved in
the audit, according to an inter-
view with CNN. “This is an exer-
cise of finding what caused the
error, but the four winners have
all, from day one, remained to be
the same four winners. This has
never threatened that. And, again,
if there would have been a wide-
spread fraud, which would have
been uncovered [in] this, it would
have come out. There was none.”
The audit is focused on a local
legislative election for several
seats. A Democratic candidate,
Kristi St. Laurent, requested a re-
count after losing her race by just
24 votes, which was granted due
to the slim margin of her defeat.
Hursti and the other auditors
have suggested that folds in bal-
lots may have caused a discrep-
ancy in the vote count. During
a hand recount, it was revealed
that St. Laurent actually lost by
99 votes, rather than the 24-vote
difference tabulated by voting
machines n Windham, with
GOP candidates—including three
other Republican candidates who
won legislative seats in the elec-
tion—receiving 300 additional
votes as a result of the recount.
The auditors have speculated
“In our view, there is just no fit
between saying there was past dis-
crimination in getting loans, and
so to remedy that, we’re going to
forgive all the people who got loans
and are minorities.”
Wynn holds multiple farm loans,
including operating loans from the
USDA Farm Service Agency, that
would be eligible for loan assis-
tance under Section 1005 if he were
black, American Indian/Alaska Na-
tive, Hispanic, Asian, or Hawaiian/
Pacific Islander.
“But Wynn is categorically ex-
cluded from loan assistance under
Section 1005 because he is white,”
according to the legal complaint.
The section’s race-based prefer-
ences run contrary to the principle
of equal treatment under the law,
according to PLF.
The “right to equality before
the law” is “a bedrock American
principle,” the law firm stated.
“Government violates that when
it treats people differently based
on irrelevant, immutable charac-
teristics like race.”
The USDA press office told The
Epoch Times the disputed program
will continue to operate.
“We will review this complaint
with the Department of Justice and
will continue to move forward on
debt relief for qualified socially dis-
advantaged borrowers under the
American Rescue Plan,” the USDA
said via email.
that folds in ballots could be to
blame for the discrepancies.
“If someone voted for all four
Republican candidates and the
ballot happened to have its fold
line going through St. Laurent’s
target, then that might be in-
terpreted by the machines as
an overvote, which would then
subtract votes from each of those
four Republican candidates,” said
Philip Stark, another member of
the audit team, told WMUR-TV
in mid-May. “Conversely, if there
were not four votes already in that
contest by the voter, a fold line
through that target could have
caused the machine to interpret
it as a vote for St. Laurent.”
Elaborating on the vote totals,
the auditors wrote in a May 22
tweet that one machine at a school
showed that only 28 percent of 75
votes for each Republican candi-
date were actually counted.
St. Laurent also noted that that
the fold line on the ballot ap-
peared to go through her name
the most often.
“Wherever the fold happened
to be was, I guess, most com-
monly through my name,” she
told WMUR-TV.
Former President Donald
Trump weighed in on the audit
efforts.
“The spirit for transparency
and justice is being displayed
all over the Country by media
outlets which do not represent
Fake News,” he wrote in a state-
ment on May 6. The former presi-
dent also praised the audit being
conducted in Maricopa County,
Arizona, regarding the 2020 pres-
idential election.
 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
Memorial Day Weekend 2021: What
to Expect on Gas Prices, Availability
ZACHARY STIEBER
Tens of millions of Americans are
expected to travel over Memorial
Day weekend, the unofficial kick-
off to summer. They’ll encounter
high gasoline prices but, for the
most part, not experience diffi-
culty finding fuel.
The average price per gallon on
May 26 remained several cents
above $3, ranging from as low as
$2.71 in the South and upper Mid-
west to as much as $4.17 in some
western states, according to data
from the American Automobile
Association (AAA). While the av-
erage is 17 cents higher than last
month and up $1.12 from a year
ago, the organization sees the
price stabilizing.
We’re expecting the
national average
[price per gallon] to
continue stabilizing.
Devin Gladden, national man-
ager for federal affairs, American
Automobile Association
“We’re expecting the national
average to continue stabilizing;
we’ve seen that over the past seven
to eight days or so, and we expect
that trend to continue,”  Devin
Gladden, AAA national manager
for federal affairs, told The Epoch
Times.
“However, given the number of
travelers that are expected to hit
the roads for Memorial Day week-
end, some states could see fluc-
tuation in their averages through
White House Denies Report That Biden Looks
Overseas for Electric Vehicle Metals
CONTINUED FROM A1
other critical materials. Trump
also allowed the Pentagon to fund
private-sector efforts to build a
domestic refinement capability
for rare earths.
The White House stated that the
Reuters report “incorrectly” char-
acterized the administration’s
approach to building domestic
manufacturing, which comprises
“responsibly developing mineral
sources” in the United States.
“President Biden is focused on
seizing the electric vehicle (EV)
market, sourcing and manufac-
turing the supply chain here in
America, and creating good-pay-
ing, union jobs,” Ali Zaidi, deputy
national climate adviser, said in a
statement to The Epoch Times.
“Building American-made EVs
and shipping them around the
world will include leveraging
American-made parts and re-
sources. This includes responsibly
pursuing, developing, and min-
ing critical minerals and materials
used for EV batteries.”
However, the White House hasn’t
ruled out working with allies and
partners to develop a resilient and
secure EV battery supply chain. The
United States will also invest in a
domestic supply chain for EVs that
involves “extraction, processing,
and recycling in the United States,”
another administration official told
The Epoch Times.
Pini Althaus, CEO of USA Rare
Earth, reacted to the Reuters re-
port, stating that the decision to
source metals from other countries
“is devastating for the sector and a
setback towards the goal of estab-
lishing a secure domestic supply
chain.” USA Rare Earth currently
develops the Round Top rare-
earths deposit in Texas.
“The winner of such policy is
China, again,” he said, in a state-
ment denouncing Washington for
making poor decisions over the
past three decades that increased
U.S. dependence on China for
rare-earth minerals and other
the weekend, particularly in areas
where there is just high demand
because of tourists.”
The national average is trending
down slightly, just off its high of
$3.04 per gallon.
“I would expect that limited
downside to continue. Probably
not a whole lot in terms of motor-
ists aren’t going to realize as nice
a drop as they would want to, but
ahead of Memorial Day, I think
the most important thing is that
we aren’t trending higher, we are
trending lower,” Patrick De Haan,
an analyst with GasBuddy, told
The Epoch Times.
The cyberattack on Colonial
Pipeline earlier this month led
to the company taking its major
southeast pipeline offline, which
in turn contributed to rising prices
and gas stations running out of
fuel. More than 16,000 stations at
the peak were unable to provide
service to customers—including
nine out of 10 stations in some
areas.
Colonial restored its operations
on May 15 for its 5,500 miles of
pipeline, which transports some
2.5 million barrels per day of re-
fined petroleum products such as
gas, jet fuel, and heating oil. The
number of stations without gas has
steadily decreased but remained
above 6,000 as of May 25, accord-
ing to GasBuddy, which tracks
pricing and availability.
The Colonial situation primar-
ily affected states between Mary-
land and Mississippi. Those states
have seen prices dip a bit in re-
cent days as supply restrictions
ease, including a drop of 3 cents
per gallon in each of Georgia and
Maryland.
President Joe Biden signs an executive order on securing critical supply
chains, in the State Dining Room of the White House on Feb. 24, 2021.
critical materials used to manu-
facture modern technologies such
as cellphones, electric vehicles,
and missiles.
“China is actively and aggres-
sively pursuing acquisitions of
rare-earth projects or offtake agree-
ments all over the world, and non-
U.S. project owners will make the
best commercial decisions for their
own shareholders, not the idealistic
and regulated approach that U.S.
miners will take—prioritizing ma-
terials for the U.S. supply chain,”
Althaus said.
Domestic electric vehicle produc-
tion depends on critical minerals
such as manganese, lithium, co-
balt, nickel, graphite, aluminum,
copper, and various rare earth ele-
ments. For some of these materi-
als, the United States is fully depen-
dent on imports. And China is the
dominant global supplier for many
of these minerals.
For the past few years, Beijing has
demonstrated that it could use rare
earths as a retaliatory tactic. And
early this year, the Chinese re-
gime officials signaled that China
could curb exports of rare earths
to cripple U.S. production of F-35
fighter jets.
To counter supply chain disrup-
tions and address these China
threats, Biden signed an execu-
tive order  on Feb. 24 to “help
While things are improving on
the supply front, there are several
states where drivers “are having to
still put some legwork into finding
a station” with gas, De Haan said.
About a quarter of stations in
Georgia, North Carolina, and
South Carolina were without fuel
on May 25. About 10 percent of sta-
tions in Virginia, Tennessee, and
Maryland remained without gas.
For people traveling over Memo-
rial Day weekend, AAA recom-
mends that they plan ahead, call-
ing stations to make sure they have
gas and utilizing apps that track
availability. One common-sense
measure is filling up before arriv-
ing at a tourism hotspot, where
fuel may be scarce and/or more
expensive.
SAUL LOEB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
create more resilient and secure
supply chains for critical and es-
sential goods.”
The order focuses on choke points
in the supply chains of four key
products, including rare earth min-
erals, semiconductor chips, batter-
ies for electric vehicles, and phar-
maceutical ingredients. Following
the review, administration officials
said the White House could explore
various policy options, including
boosting domestic production and
working with allies to address sup-
ply disruptions.
While critical minerals includ-
ing rare earths are vital  to the
economic and national security of
the United States, it’s still unclear
whether the Biden administration
can promote ramping up domestic
mining and refining due to road-
blocks from environmentalists
and some Democrats.
“As we strengthen our supply
chains, we will pursue strong en-
vironmental standards and broad,
rigorous consultations with local
and indigenous communities to
support a responsible, fair, and sus-
tainable EV industry,” Zaidi said.
“President Biden will also make
sure no workers or communities
are left behind–working to revi-
talize economies and create good
jobs in coal and power plant com-
munities.”
The slow recovery from what
was a nightmare for some Ameri-
cans stems from higher demand
due to the economic recovery
and a dearth of tanker drivers,
experts say.
“A lot of those drivers during the
pandemic switched over to deliv-
ering for, you know, FedEx, UPS,
given all the other deliveries that
are increasing at this moment,”
Gladden said. “There’s still a real
challenge with gas tanker drivers.”
It could take another two weeks
for the supply problems to dimin-
ish, according to De Haan.
Looking forward, Americans
should expect gas prices to stay
around the current level through
the summer because of the in-
creased demand and higher oil
Homeland Security Chief
Plans ‘Significant Changes’ to ICE
as Deportations, Arrests Plunge
ZACHARY STIEBER
The head of the Department of
Homeland Secretary (DHS) is
planning to make major adjust-
ments to Immigration and Cus-
toms Enforcement (ICE), the agen-
cy’s arm in charge of immigration
enforcement.
Alejandro Mayorkas, the DHS
chief, said he’s in the midst of a
review of ICE and expects to make
“significant changes” when he’s
done.
“What those changes will be, I
am wrestling with right now, quite
frankly,” Mayorkas told The Wash-
ington Post.
Under the Biden administration,
illegal border crossings have sky-
rocketed, hitting over 177,000 in
April. Tens of thousands of other
illegal immigrants evade cap-
ture by Border Patrol agents each
month. At the same time, the num-
ber of deportations carried out by
ICE has hit a record low. Officers
deported fewer than 3,000 illegal
aliens in April.
Biden altered or abolished key
Trump-era immigration rules,
including ending the “Remain in
Mexico” program that saw asylum-
seekers wait in Mexico for their
claims to be heard. ICE officers,
meanwhile, were told in February
not to deport aliens convicted of
crimes such as assault, fraud, and
drug-based crimes. The softer
approach to enforcement has
sparked more foreigners to try to
make it into America and stay,
earning criticism from the union
of Border Patrol officers.
An ICE spokesperson told The
Epoch Times previously that the
agency is concentrating its limited
resources “on threats to national
security, border security, and
public safety.”
“This has allowed ICE to focus
on the quality of enforcement ac-
tions and how they further the
security and safety of our com-
munities rather than the simple
quantity of arrests and remov-
NATION | A3
Cars line up at a gas station
in Miami on May 12, 2021.
CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
prices, among other factors.
One wild-card factor is President
Joe Biden’s administration’s en-
gagement with Iran, whose oil is
currently largely out of reach from
the U.S. market due to sanctions.
Iran could be holding up to 69
million barrels at sea, according
to  estimates from E.A. Gibson
Shipbrokers Ltd. cited by Bloom-
berg. Citigroup offered a similar
estimate, pegging the supply at up
to 65 million barrels at sea and 54
million in storage on land.
“If there’s an agreement, and if
the U.S. releases those sanctions
on Iran’s crude oil, we could see
more supply available to the mar-
ket, which certainly would help
cap any potential rally in the price
of oil this summer,” De Haan said.
als,” the spokesperson said.
The Biden administration has
chosen to keep ICE for now, de-
spite calls from some Democrats
to abolish the agency. But May-
orkas plans to alter its mission
significantly.
“I really am focused on it becom-
ing a premier national security and
law enforcement agency,” he told
the Post. “I really want to elevate
all of the other work [ICE] does
and also ensure that its civil im-
migration work is well-focused in
the service of the national security
and public safety mission.”
According to the Post, ICE’s 6,000
officers are averaging one arrest
every two months.
What those chang-
es will be, I am
wrestling with
right now.
Homeland Security Secretary
Alejandro Mayorkas
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.
Va.), the ranking member of the
Senate Appropriations Subcom-
mittee on Homeland Security,
mentioned the figure while ques-
tioning Mayorkas in Washington
during a hearing on May 26.
Mayorkas replied: “I am not fa-
miliar with the data that suggests
that the ICE officer, the relevant
ICE officer, conducts one arrest
every two months.
“I don’t have the data, but I will
provide it to this committee. I will
say that the preliminary data that
I have received does suggest that
we are apprehending more seri-
ous criminals, more serious pub-
lic safety threats than previously
was the case, and that is what
smart and effective enforcement
is all about.”
Samuel Allegri contributed
to this report.
A4 | NATION
Men work at a distribution station at the 855,000-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, N.Y., on
Feb. 5, 2019.
District of Columbia Sues Amazon
for Alleged Antitrust Violations
CONTINUED FROM A1
position in the online retail mar-
ket to win at all costs. It maxi-
mizes its profits at the expense of
third-party sellers and consum-
ers, while harming competition,
stifling innovation, and illegally
tilting the playing field in its fa-
vor,” he said.
“We filed this antitrust lawsuit
to put an end to Amazon’s illegal
control of prices across the on-
line retail market. We need a fair
online marketplace that expands
options available to District resi-
dents and promotes competition,
innovation, and choice.”
Judge Rejects CNN’s Motion to Dismiss
Dershowitz Defamation Lawsuit
ZACHARY STIEBER
A federal judge rejected a motion
made by CNN this week to dis-
miss a defamation lawsuit filed by
Harvard University law professor
Alan Dershowitz.
CNN presented an abridged
version of remarks made by Der-
showitz to the Senate during for-
mer President Donald Trump’s
first impeachment trial, which “is
not accurate, to the extent that it
omitted a crucial qualification:
that an illegal motive for a quid
pro quo would be corrupt,” U.S.
District Judge Raag Singhal, a
Trump nominee, wrote in his 22-
page ruling.
At issue is a Jan. 29, 2020, broad-
cast on CNN which featured hosts
employed by the network, as well
as panel guests—including other
CNN employees—discussing ar-
guments made that day during
Trump’s impeachment trial.
While Dershowitz spoke for
more than five minutes to an-
swer a question from Sen. Ted
Cruz (R-Texas) on whether “quid
pro quo” arrangements are used
often in foreign policy, CNN fo-
cused on a single sentence from
his answer before claiming that
Epstein Guards Slapped With 100 Hours of Community Service in Deal With DOJ
IVAN PENTCHOUKOV
The two guards of the cell in which
convicted sex-offender billionaire
Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide
will have to perform 100 hours of
community service as part of a de-
ferred prosecution deal with the
Department of Justice (DOJ).
According to a deferred prosecu-
tion agreement signed by one of
the defendants, Michael Thomas,
the DOJ will defer the prosecu-
tion for six months, contingent on
the defendant meeting a number
of conditions, which include not
engaging in criminal activity, as-
sociating only with law-abiding
The legal complaint in District
of Columbia v. Amazon.com Inc.
was filed May 25 in the Superior
Court of the District of Colum-
bia, Civil Division, according to
Racine.
Since Amazon was started,
founder Jeff Bezos made it clear
the company planned to forgo
short-term profitability and in-
stead expand its market share.
Amazon now has an estimated
50 to 70 percent market share of
online retail sales. The next two
largest retail platforms, Walmart.
com and eBay, each control only
about 5 percent, according to the
complaint.
the law professor was arguing
that a president could do any-
thing, including illegal acts, if he
believed his re-election was in
the public interest.
But Dershowitz stated in an-
other portion of the answer that
“the only thing that would make
a quid pro quo unlawful is if the
quo were somehow illegal.”
CNN attempted “to falsely paint
Professor Dershowitz as a consti-
tutional scholar and intellectual
who had lost his mind,” Dershow-
itz stated in his $300 million defa-
mation lawsuit.
In its motion to dismiss, lawyers
for CNN stated that “Dershowitz’s
disagreement with CNN about the
meaning the words he spoke on
the Senate floor is just the type of
political debate involving matters
of profound national importance
that is central to the American
values of self-governance; it is not
grounds for a defamation lawsuit.”
The lawyers further said CNN’s
reporting was protected because
it was pertaining to a government
proceeding, that CNN “cannot be
held liable for reporting—verba-
tim—what Dershowitz actually
said to Congress,” and that the
remarks made by CNN employ-
people, and completing 100 hours
of community service.
“After a thorough investigation,
and based on the facts of this case
and your personal circumstances,
the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the
Southern District of New York has
determined that the interests of
justice will best be served by defer-
ring prosecution in this District,”
the agreement states.
The judge in the case still needs
to approve the deal between the
DOJ and the guards.
Thomas and Tova Noel, the
second guard, were accused of
falsifying documents to conceal
their failure to conduct scheduled
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
“Amazon controls an even
larger market share of multi-
seller online retail platforms, like
Walmart.com and eBay. Amazon
is, by far, the most-visited web-
site for online retail shopping,
with 2.6 billion visits in a single
month. Sixty-six percent of con-
sumers start their search for new
products on Amazon, and a stag-
gering 74% go directly to Amazon
when they are ready to buy a spe-
cific product. Given its ubiquitous
presence in the online retail sales
market, Amazon’s business prac-
tices and decisions have an out-
sized effect on the U.S. economy.”
The complaint alleges that Am-
ees are non-actionable because
they were opinions based on tes-
timony from the impeachment
proceedings.
Dershowitz panned the motion
as an attempt to skip a trial, argu-
ing the broadcaster “is essentially
making a pitch for this Court to be
the jury and decide the case on the
merits right away.”
The case boils down to CNN
and its paid commentators falsely
telling an audience of millions of
people that Dershowitz went be-
fore the Senate and told members
“that an American President can
commit crimes and be immune
from impeachment so long as the
president believed his reelection
was in the public interest while
he was committing the crimes,”
he wrote in a reply to the motion.
“The complaint alleges that
CNN and all of the commenta-
tors knowingly lied when they
said this and that they knew
they were lying when they said
it. If the evidence proves plain-
tiff’s allegation, then each com-
mentator committed unlawful
defamation and CNN is both vi-
cariously and primarily liable for
damages. It really is that simple,”
Dershowitz said.
rounds in the jail where Epstein
was held.
Epstein was placed on suicide
watch days prior to the night of
his death.
The billionaire pleaded guilty
more than a decade ago to two
felony prostitution charges in a
sweetheart deal which a federal
judge later determined violated
victims’ rights. He was arrested
again in 2019 by the FBI’s Crimes
Against Children Task Force on sex
trafficking charges.
Three weeks prior to his death,
Epstein was found unconscious in
his cell with injuries to his neck.
He was placed on suicide watch
THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
azon is liable for four counts of vi-
olating the District of Columbia’s
Antitrust Act. Specifically, the
company is accused of forming
both a horizontal agreement and
a vertical agreement in restraint
of trade, attempting monopoliza-
tion, and illegally maintaining a
monopoly. The D.C. government
asks the court to order Amazon
not to engage in anticompetitive
conduct and to impose “struc-
tural relief,” which could include
breaking up the company.
The complaint states that in-
stead of enabling consumers to
obtain the best products at the
lowest prices, “Amazon instead
causes prices across the entire
online retail sales market to
be artificially inflated, both for
products sold on Amazon’s on-
line retail sales platform and on
its competitors’ online retail sales
platforms.”
For years, Amazon has required
that third-party sellers (TPSs)
who want to sell their products
on Amazon’s online retail sales
platform execute its Business
Solutions Agreement (BSA).
Until at least 2019 in the United
States, the BSA included a clause
that explicitly prohibited TPSs
from offering their products on
a competing online retail sales
platform, including the TPS’s
own website, at a lower price or
on better terms than the TPS of-
fered the products on Amazon.
This prohibition was called the
price parity provision (PPP), the
complaint states.
By means of this anticompeti-
tive restraint, Amazon “sup-
pressed competition from other
online retail sales platforms, such
as eBay, Walmart, and even the
TPSs’ own websites” and “arti-
ficially raised the price of goods
to consumers across the online
retail sales market, because TPSs
were forced to incorporate Ama-
zon’s high fees and costs into their
product prices not only when sell-
Attorney Alan Dershowitz speaks to the press in the Senate Reception Room
at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 29, 2020.
Singhal sided with the plaintiff.
Because CNN’s abridged ver-
sion of Dershowitz’s remarks
omitted a crucial qualification,
its commentators’ statements
“are not based upon a fair and
accurate summary of Dershow-
itz’ statement to the Senate,”
Singhal said.
The network’s claim of protec-
tion by fair privilege is null be-
cause it didn’t correctly portray
the official proceedings, accord-
ing to the judge, who wrote that
the CNN broadcasts didn’t meet
the standard of presenting “a fair
and accurate report of the source
documents.”
Additionally, the remarks put
forth by CNN employees weren’t
for six days prior to being moved
to a special housing unit where
the cell would be checked every
30 minutes. The guard failed to fol-
low those procedures on the night
of Epstein’s death.
Epstein’s girlfriend and long-
time associate, Ghislaine Max-
well, was subsequently arrested
on charges that she procured
minor girls for sexual abuse by
Epstein. The judge in that case
earlier this month postponed
the trial until the fall due to new
charges having been added to the
cases and court protocols related
to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not
ing on Amazon, but also when
selling across the entire online
retail sales market by virtue of
the PPP.”
The resultant higher prices
hurt competition and consum-
ers as well as reduced consumer
choice, innovation, and compe-
tition “among online retail sales
platforms, as other online retail
sales platforms were not able to
use lower product prices to lure
buyers and sellers to their com-
peting online retail sales platform
and capture some of Amazon’s
dominant market share.”
We need a fair on-
line marketplace
that expands op-
tions available to
District residents.
Karl Racine, District of Colum-
bia attorney general
Amazon removed the PPP
clause from its BSA in March
2019, replacing it with a similarly
worded “fair pricing policy.” The
policy allows the company to
punish third-party sellers if they
offer their product for a lower
price on a competing website.
Amazon told The Epoch Times
that Racine is mistaken.
“The DC Attorney General has
it exactly backwards—sellers set
their own prices for the products
they offer in our store,” a corporate
spokesperson said in a statement.
“Amazon takes pride in the fact
that we offer low prices across the
broadest selection, and like any
store, we reserve the right not to
highlight offers to customers that
are not priced competitively. The
relief the AG seeks would force
Amazon to feature higher prices
to customers, oddly going against
core objectives of antitrust law.”
MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES
pure opinion, Singhal said, cit-
ing an appellate court ruling that
found the distinction that com-
ments can sometimes be a mix-
ture of opinion and fact and, in
this case, could be “reasonably
construed as defamatory.”
“At this stage, the Court con-
cludes that Dershowitz’ Com-
plaint meets the plausibility stan-
dard for alleging a false statement
of fact,” the judge said, before not-
ing that CNN played Dershowitz’s
entire statement earlier in the day.
Attorneys for Dershowitz and
CNN didn’t respond to requests
for comment.
A joint scheduling report in the
case is due by June 21. Dershowitz
is seeking a jury trial.
guilty to sex trafficking and oth-
er charges over her alleged role
in procuring four teenage girls
for Epstein to abuse between
1994 and 2004.
She had sought to delay the trial
until at least Nov. 8, and perhaps
to next January, because adding
the sex trafficking charges to her
indictment on March 29 more
than doubled the size of the gov-
ernment’s case.
Prosecutors opposed an ad-
journment but said they could
accept a March 2022 start date to
avoid scheduling conflicts.
Reuters contributed to this report.
 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 NATION | A5

Biden: Some US Intel Members Believe COVID-19

Came From Chinese ‘Laboratory Accident’
HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
JACK PHILLIPS

President Joe Biden said on May 26 that the

U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) believes
there are “two likely scenarios” that may have
caused the CCP virus outbreak in China,
noting that a significant number of officials
believe the virus was spread due to a “labora-
tory accident.”
His statement, released by the White
House, comes amid officials saying they
don’t believe the virus developed natu-
rally—contradicting the official narrative
of the Chinese Communist Party, which
has said the virus was spread through a wet
market in Wuhan, Hebei Province, in late
2019. In recent days, a growing number of
officials, including U.S. National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief An-
thony Fauci, have suggested that the virus
didn’t develop naturally.
“After I became President, in March, I had
my National Security Advisor task the Intel-
ligence Community to prepare a report on
their most up-to-date analysis of the origins
of COVID-19, including whether it emerged
from human contact with an infected ani-
mal or from a laboratory accident,” Biden
said, adding that he wanted intelligence
agents to “redouble” their efforts in find-
ing the origin of the virus.
“As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Com- the virus may have been developed in and es- from Republicans, led by Rep. Devin Nunes Security
munity has ‘coalesced around two likely caped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (R-Calif.), the ranking House Intelligence personnel
scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive The U.S. Intelli- (WIV), a top-security laboratory located just member, said. “By contrast, little circum- stand
conclusion on this question,” the president gence Commu- miles from the aforementioned wet market. A stantial evidence has emerged to support the guard
stated. “Here is their current position: ‘while team of investigators, led by the World Health PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] claim that outside
two elements in the IC leans toward the for-
nity has ‘co- Organization (WHO), attempted to research COVID-19 was a natural occurrence, having the Wuhan
alesced around Institute
mer scenario and one leans more toward the virus’s origins in China, though many jumped from some other species to humans.” of Virology
the latter—each with low or moderate con- two likely sce- have noted that CCP officials were present The former head of the U.S. Centers for Dis- in Wuhan,
fidence—the majority of elements do not be- throughout the WHO’s efforts, and critics ease Control (CDC), Dr. Robert Redfield, a
lieve there is sufficient information to assess narios’ but has have said the regime played a significant role virologist, also told CNN earlier this year that
Hubei
province,
one to be more likely than the other.’” not reached a in the investigation. the virus likely “escaped” from the lab, not- China, on
Biden said he wanted the IC—the group definitive con- During the onset of the pandemic, the Chi- ing: “It’s not unusual for respiratory patho- Feb. 3,
of separate United States government intel- nese regime was accused of engaging in a gens that are being worked on in a laboratory 2021.
ligence agencies and subordinate organiza- clusion on this coverup of the virus’s origins and silencing to infect a laboratory worker.”
tions—to produce a report in 90 days regard- question. doctors, officials, and scientists who tried The CCP has denied that the virus’s origin is
ing the virus’s origins. to speak out. linked to the WIV and has frequently said that
Since the start of the pandemic, a number President Joe Biden “There is overwhelming circumstan- the virus was transmitted to humans from
of Republican lawmakers as well as former tial evidence ... to support a lab leak as the an animal host, although it’s not clear what
President Donald Trump have suggested that origination of COVID-19,” a May 19 report animal the country is claiming it was from.

CARSTEN KOALL/GETTY IMAGES

Biden Defends Lifting Sanctions Against

Key Pipeline for Russian Gas
IVAN PENTCHOUKOV
President Joe Biden has defended
his administration’s decision to
lift sanctions on the Nord Stream
2 pipeline, which would carry
natural gas from Russia to Ger-
many and Europe.
The president said that although
he opposed the project from the
beginning, the pipeline is now
nearly finished.
“To go ahead and impose
sanctions now would, I think,
be counterproductive in terms
of our European relations. They
know how strongly I feel,” Biden
told reporters outside the White
House on May 25.
In late 2019, Congress and the
Trump administration sanctioned
a number of entities tied to the
construction of the $10.5 billion
pipeline. The sanctions were part
of the National Defense Authoriza-
tion Act, which stated the goal was
to “minimize the ability” of Russia
to use Nord Stream 2 “as a tool of
coercion and political leverage”
and to stop Russia from shifting
energy exports from Ukraine to
other countries. Russia vowed to
continue the project at the time.
The pipeline is now
nearly finished.
Earlier this month, the Biden
administration waived the sanc-
tions against Nord Stream 2 AG
and its CEO, Matthias Warnig—a
known ally of Russian President
Vladimir Putin—which were lev-
ied due to the company oversee-
ing the construction of the project.
In announcing the waiver of the
sanctions, Secretary of State Ant-
ony Blinken said the company had
engaged in sanctionable activity.
News of the waiver drew criti-
cism from both sides of the aisle.
“I am opposed to the decision
by the Biden Administration
to waive sanctions on NS2 AG
and Matthias Warnig,” Sen. Bob
Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a state-
ment on May 19.
“I urge the administration to rip Workers work on the production process of pipes at the Nord Stream 2 facil-
off the Band-Aid, lift these waivers ity at Mukran, in Sassnitz, Germany, on Oct. 19, 2017.
and move forward with the con-
gressionally mandated sanctions. waivers will be “a gift to Putin that construction, which would have
The administration has said that will only weaken the United States’ been sanctioned as a result. The
the pipeline is a bad idea and that leverage in the lead up to the im- administration instead sanc-
it is a Russian malign influence pending Biden-Putin summit.” tioned ships that had already been
project. I share that sentiment, The Biden administration pre- sanctioned under President Don-
but fail to see how today’s decision viously came under fire when a ald Trump.
will advance U.S. efforts to counter report on the pipeline released in
Russian aggression in Europe.” February failed to name a num- Zachary Stieber and Isabel Van
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Wis.) said the ber of entities tied to the pipeline’s Brugen contributed to this report.

THINK
THE EPOCH TIMES
BUT FOR TV
News without spin, for you to
form your own opinion.

GET NTD ON TV WATCH US ONLINE PAUL GREANEY TIFFANY MEIER STEFANIA COX KEVIN HOGAN
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and Deep Dive Evening News News Today
A6 | NATION
Republicans Move
to Limit Power
of Arizona
Secretary of State
ZACHARY STIEBER
Republican lawmakers in Arizona
on May 25 moved to limit the power
of Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a
Democrat.
Panels in the state House of Repre-
sentatives and Senate passed mea-
sures that would make clear Attorney
General Mark Brnovich has the “sole
authority” to defend Arizona election
laws and procedures.
House Bill 2891 in part “clarifies the
legislative intent, through January 2,
2023 ... that the AG has sole authority
in all election-related litigation.”
It also declares that Brnovich can’t
represent or provide legal advice to
either Hobbs or the Department of
State and bars Hobbs from spend-
ing taxpayer money to hire private
attorneys.
The bill was narrowly passed by the
House Appropriations Committee in
a partisan 7–6 vote, with all Republi-
cans voting for it. A similar narrow
vote ensued later in the day in the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
Hobbs in an earlier statement said
the Legislature appeared  deter-
mined to “prevent me from doing the
job Arizona voters elected me to do.”
“Last year, we oversaw three safe,
secure, and successful statewide elec-
tions with historic turnout, despite
a global pandemic, a massive mis-
information campaign, and unprec-
edented threats against me and other
election officials. Afterward, while
other state officials remained silent,
we defended that election in count-
less lawsuits seeking to overturn the
will of Arizona voters,” Hobbs wrote.
“The fact that the legislation has
singled out me and my office for these
unjustifiable restrictions—restric-
tions which expire at the end of my
term—make it clear what this is really
about: partisan politics.”
ROSS D. FRANKLIN/FILE/AP PHOTO
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs
in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020.
Brnovich’s office didn’t immediately
respond to a request by The Epoch
Times for comment.
Hobbs and Republican state law-
makers have clashed repeatedly in
recent months over the election.
Hobbs has continually denounced a
state Senate-ordered audit of ballots
and election machines in Maricopa
County, which state lawmakers say is
crucial to restoring voters’ confidence
in the election system.
Legislators also cited a disclosure
on May 25 that Hobbs had filed com-
plaints against Brnovich and his office
with the State Bar of Arizona.
“I would say the unprecedented at-
tack on the attorney general, the chief
deputy, and many high-level attor-
neys is uncalled for,” said Republican
state Sen. Vince Leach, according to
a report by Capitol Media. “This is re-
ally disconcerting and should be dis-
concerting to the people of Arizona.”
House Appropriations Chairwom-
an Regina Cobb, a Republican, said
the changes stemmed in part from
how Hobbs has split from Brnovich
in litigation that they initially had
agreed upon.
“Halfway through the litigation,
she’s decided to go the other direc-
tion from the AG’s Office, from what
they’ve been helping her with,” Cobb
said, adding that Hobbs has hired out-
side attorneys in some cases but still
bills the state.
Democrats decried the proposed
changes, which would need approv-
al from the full Legislature and the
signature of Republican Gov. Doug
Ducey to be enacted.
“We are meddling with the Con-
stitution,” state Rep. Randy Friese, a
Democrat, told colleagues, according
to ABC 15.
The bill would also move oversight
of the Capitol Museum from Hobbs
to the Legislative Oversight Council.
Key House Democrat Supports Committee
Probe of CCP Virus Origins
CONTINUED FROM A1
embarrassed because what they
had said at the beginning wasn’t
what they ended up saying sev-
eral weeks or months later.”
“I can think of no other area
where that has been more pro-
nounced than in where did this
virus originate, and the stories
we are hearing now are not
comporting with the stories
we heard early on” regarding
how the virus first developed
in China.
The official explanation of the
Chinese government is that the
virus originated in an open-air
meat market in Wuhan, China,
from bats brought in from anoth-
er region of the country and sold
there for human consumption.
The World Health Organiza-
tion (WHO) originally accepted
the Chinese regime’s explana-
tion, but more recently has con-
ceded that a lab leak can’t be de-
finitively ruled out.
We’re going to do
whatever investi-
gation that is ap-
propriate.
Rep. Diana DeGette
Critics have contended almost
from the first day of the U.S.
lockdowns last year that there’s
evidence the disease may have
been leaked, accidentally or oth-
erwise, from the Wuhan Insti-
tute of Virology (WIR).
The WIR is closely linked with
the Beijing regime, which is
controlled by the Chinese Com-
munist Party (CCP). The lab also
does much research in coopera-
Study Projects $9.3
Billion in New Union
Income Under PRO Act
MARK TAPSCOTT
Labor unions could see a huge
boost in revenues, estimated at
$9.3 billion in dues from work-
ers, if the Senate passes and
President Joe Biden signs the
House-approved PRO Act, ac-
cording to a new study.
The Protecting the Right to Or-
ganize Act (PRO) was approved
in March by the House of Rep-
resentatives and is now being
considered by the Senate Com-
mittee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions. Biden has
promised to sign the measure if
it comes to his desk.
The PRO Act vastly expands
the power of the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB) to use
its regulatory authority to rein-
force organized labor’s efforts
to expand its membership after
decades of decline.
It would also nullify the 27
state right-to-work laws pres-
ently on the books, and enable
unions  to collect mandatory
dues from employees who don’t
wish to join a trade organization.
“If enacted into law, the PRO
Act will likely result in increases
to the private union member
rate. This will increase the num-
ber of dues-paying members
who fund labor organizations,
increasing labor organization
receipts and enabling unions to
increase their disbursements,”
noted a study by the Institute
for the American Worker (IAW).
The IAW is a conservative non-
profit that advocates for free
market reforms and shouldn’t
be confused with the AFL-CIO’s
Working for America Institute.
“If the private sector union
membership rate returns to
where it was within the last
several decades, this could con-
THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
CONGRESS.GOV VIA GETTY IMAGES
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) speaks at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Feb. 11, 2021.
tion with and for the Chinese government to augment the In- Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers
military. telligence Community’s efforts. (R-Wash.), the ranking Repub-
DeGette’s comment followed a And I have asked the Intelligence lican on the House Energy and
statement made public earlier in Community to keep Congress Commerce Committee, told The
the day by President Joe Biden, fully apprised of its work.” Epoch Times on May 26 that the
who said he has directed U.S. in- Earlier work by the intelli- committee “will continue to
telligence to conduct a second gence community produced lead and urge the Biden admin-
investigation of the available no definitive conclusion, with istration and the U.S. govern-
evidence on the origins issue. some agencies leaning toward ment to investigate, hold China
“I have now asked the Intel- supporting the official Chinese accountable, and get informa-
ligence Community to redou- explanation and others to the tion in the public domain for
ble their efforts to collect and possibility of a lab leak. answers on how the COVID-19
analyze information that could “The majority of elements do pandemic started.
bring us closer to a definitive not believe there is sufficient “We welcome and are encour-
conclusion, and to report back information to assess one to aged by the bipartisan support
to me in 90 days,” Biden said in be more likely than the other,” within the Committee to inves-
the statement released by the Biden said. tigate if COVID-19 originated in
White House. “The United States will also a laboratory accident. We can’t
“As part of that report, I have keep working with like-minded leave any stone unturned,” she
asked for areas of further inquiry partners around the world to said.
that may be required, including press China to participate in
specific questions for China. I a full, transparent, evidence- Congressional wcorrespondent
have also asked that this effort based international investiga- Mark Tapscott may be
include work by our National tion and to provide access to all contacted at mark.tapscott@
Labs and other agencies of our relevant data and evidence.” epochtimes.nyc
much the union membership
rate will increase, however, is
beck was indicted on a kickback
scheme in which he filed false
subject to debate.” worker complaints of violations
Labor unions spent $791 mil-
lion on political campaigns and
of overtime rules by postal ser-
vice managers. Whitbeck is ac-
activities in 2020, almost exclu-
sively on Democratic candidates
cused by federal prosecutors of
then directing settlement funds
and causes, according to IAW. to members who agreed to kick
servatively mean an increase Such spending would spiral to back a portion of them to him.
of $9.3 billion in dues receipts $961 million under the 2000 Brenda Walters, then secre-
within the universe of labor assumption and to more than tary-treasurer of the Muskogee
organizations that file [LM-2] $1.5 billion under the 1983 as- (Oklahoma) Local Area 7 of the
reports with [the Department sumption. American Postal Workers Union,
of Labor’s] Office of Labor-Man- The steady decline since the AFL-CIO, embezzled more than
agement Standards (OLMS),” Reagan era in union member- $95,000 in union funds.
the study stated. ship has resulted, in part, due to Jeffrey Phillips, former secre-
“This would allow unions to the spread of right-to-work laws tary-treasurer of the Interna-
increase their disbursements for passing in a majority of states tional Association of Machinists
everything from politics to land- and, in part, because of aggres- and Aerospace Workers Local
scaping, expanding their power sive efforts during President Lodge 836, stole more than
and influence greatly.” George W. Bush’s eight years in $57,000 from the union. His
The study’s projections the Oval Office to enforce lawyer told the court that Phil-
assume union mem- the LM-2 financial dis- lips didn’t recall what happened
bership would either closure requirements. to the money, due to a medical
be increased to levels Continuing con- condition.
not seen since 1983, victions of union Dorothy McBride, the former
when, according to leaders for serious president of a Communications
DOL’s Bureau of La- offenses has also Workers of America local in New
bor Statistics (BLS), damaged the cred- Jersey, was indicted for allegedly
the nationwide total ibility of labor organi- embezzling more than $600,000
was 16.8 percent of all zations with workers. In from the union and using the
private-sector workers just the first four months funds to pay off her American
or since 2000, when the Workers of 2021, 10 union officials Express and other credit cards.
rate was 9 percent. assemble have been convicted or Former United Auto Workers
Currently, 6.3 percent Ford vehi- indicted in such cases, Local 1320 Financial Secretary
of all private-sector work- cles at the including: Brian Rittenhouse is charged
ers are union members— Chicago United Steelworkers with embezzling $500 in union
the lowest level in many Assem- Union Local 1731 Presi- funds that were labeled as in-
decades—but still the bly Plant on dent Trey Huffy plead- tended to purchase T-shirts.
June 24,
source of $11.1 billion in 2019.
ed  guilty to stealing Linda Rogers, former secre-
annual dues revenues, more than $37,000 from tary-treasurer of the American
according to BLS data the union. Federation of State, County
cited by the study. Former Ironworkers Local and Municipal Employees (AF-
If labor union membership in- 470 Treasurer Scott Merritt took SCME) Union, and her daughter,
creases to the 2000 level, dues $50,850 from the union for his Jennifer, were convicted of em-
revenues would increase to personal use over a seven-year bezzling $40,455 from the local’s
$13.5 billion, while an increase period. checking and savings accounts.
to the 1983 level would produce Salvatore Tagliaferro, presi- Scott Rogers, president of Post-
a $9.3 billion increase. dent of the Local Chapter 926 of al Mail Handlers Local 314 was
The two assumptions are nec- the United Brotherhood of Car- indicted for embezzling an esti-
essary because, as the study ex- penters and Joiners of America mated $80,000 from the union’s
plains, “most, if not all, labor ob- took more than $70,000 in bribes bank account. The local’s former
servers believe that enacting the in return for union member- treasurer, Yvette Luster, was in-
PRO Act will lead to an increase ships. More than half of those dicated on the same charge.
in the private sector union mem- members never received work
bership rate and those required assignments. Congressional correspondent
to pay fees. This has been widely Former National Association Mark Tapscott may be
accepted in public comments of Letter Carriers Union Local contacted at mark.tapscott@
on the pending legislation. How 274 Vice President Joseph Whit- epochtimes.nyc.
 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 NATION | A7

Senate Adopts GOP Amendment Banning US

Funding of China’s Gain-of-Function Cell Research
STEFANI REYNOLDS/GETTY IMAGES

CONTINUED FROM A1

The amendment defines gain-of-

function research as “any research
project that may be reasonably an-
ticipated to confer attributes to influ-
enza, MERS, or SARS viruses such
that the virus would have enhanced
pathogenicity or transmissibility in
mammals.”
That’s the same definition the Na-
tional Institutes for Health (NIH) used
when implementing a funding mora-
torium on gain-of-function research
from 2014 to 2017. The moratorium
lapsed during the previous Congress.
Paul’s amendment follows a grow-
ing debate in Congress and the media
over the issue of whether the CCP vi-
rus—also known as the novel coro-
navirus—originated due to a leak,
accidental or otherwise, from China’s
Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIR), or
from transmission to humans via bat
meat sold in an open-air market in
Wuhan. The latter is the official expla-
nation of the Chinese regime.
“We don’t know whether the pan-
demic started in a lab in Wuhan or
evolved naturally,” Paul said in a state-
ment about his amendment. “While
many still deny funding gain-of-
function research in Wuhan, experts
believe otherwise. The passage of my GREG NASH/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

amendment ensures that this never
happens in the future.
“No taxpayer money should have
ever been used to fund gain-of-func-
tion research in Wuhan, and now, we
permanently have put it to a stop.”
Earlier this month, Paul and Dr.
Anthony Fauci, who heads NIH’s
National Institute for Allergies and
Infectious Diseases (NIAID), had a
heated exchange during a hearing
of the Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions, con-
cerning whether the Wuhan lab had
received U.S. funding directly or in-
directly.
Fauci, who has been a highly visible
and controversial adviser on the CCP
virus to both President Donald Trump
and President Joe Biden, vigorously
denied that such funding came from
NIAID.
“Gain-of-function research essen-
tially involves juicing up naturally-
occurring animal viruses to infect
humans,” Paul’s office said in the
statement.
“For years, Dr. Ralph Baric, a virolo-
gist in the U.S., has been collaborating
with Dr. Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Vi-
rology Institute, sharing his discover-
ies about how to create super viruses.
“During their research, Dr. Baric
and Dr. Shi worked together to in-
sert bat virus spike protein into the
backbone of the deadly SARS virus
and then used the man-made super
virus to infect human airway cells.
“Much of the research they were do-
ing was funded through Dr. Fauci’s
The U.S. Capitol in NIH and NIAID.
Washington on Aug. “When Dr. Paul asked Dr. Fauci
6, 2020. whether he supports the NIH fund-
ing of the lab in Wuhan, Dr. Fauci, a
strong supporter and ardent advocate
of gain-of-function research, claimed
that the NIH ‘has not ever and does not
now fund gain-of-function research in
the Wuhan Institute of Virology.’
“Despite Dr. Fauci’s previous deni-
als, there is ample evidence and back-
No taxpayer ing by the scientific community that
money should the NIH and the NIAID, under his
direction, funded gain-of-function
have ever research at the Wuhan Institute of
been used to Virology.
fund gain- “A multitude of scientists have re-
viewed this research and said it meets
of-function the definition for gain-of-function.
research in Many of these scientists have also
Wuhan, and discussed the inherent dangers of
conducting gain-of-function research
now, we per- and the risks it poses to the human
manently population.”
have put it to The Endless Frontier Act is spon-
sored by Senate Majority Leader
a stop. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and provides
Sen. Rand Paul
a massive increase in funding for the
National Science Foundation (NSF).
Schumer’s bill would boost
NSF’s funding from its present $8.5
billion annual budget by creating
within it a new Directorate for Tech-
nology and Innovation that would
receive $100 billion over the next five
years.
“The goals of the directorate shall be,
among other things, the strengthen-
ing of U.S. leadership in critical tech-
nologies through basic research in key
technology focus areas, such as arti-
ficial intelligence, high-performance
computing, and advanced manufac-
turing, and the commercialization
of those technologies to businesses
in the United States,” according to
the Congressional Research Service.
“The bill gives the NSF the authority
to provide for the widest practicable
and appropriate dissemination of in-
formation within the United States
concerning the NSF’s activities and
the results of those activities.”
In addition, the Schumer proposal
would dramatically increase NSF’s
work in the areas of critical technolo-
gies in the national security sector of
advanced technology research.
The proposal also directs the White
House Office of Science and Technol-
ogy Policy to develop on an annual
Sen. Rand
Paul (R-Ky.)
at a hearing
at the U.S.
Capitol in
Washington
on May 11,
2021.
basis “a strategy for the federal gov-
ernment to improve national com-
petitiveness in science, research, and
innovation to support the national
security strategy.”
In addition, the bill directs the De-
partment of Commerce to “(1) estab-
lish a supply chain resiliency and
crisis response program to address
supply chain gaps and vulnerabili-
ties in critical industries, (2) designate
regional technology hubs to facilitate
activities that support regional eco-
nomic development that diffuses in-
novation around the United States,
and (3) award grants to facilitate de-
velopment and implementation of
comprehensive regional technology
strategies.”
Congressional correspondent
Mark Tapscott may be contacted at
mark.tapscott@epochtimes.nyc

30 Republicans Urge Pentagon Chief to ‘Fight Back’
Against ‘Left-Wing Extremism’ in US Military
TOM OZIMEK
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) led
a group of 30 House Republicans in
urging Secretary of Defense Lloyd
Austin to fight back against “creep-
ing left-wing extremism” in the U.S.
military.
Rosendale and his GOP col-
leagues said in a May 25 letter to
Austin that they’re concerned
about “the growing trend of left-
wing extremism and politicization
in our armed forces,” while citing
several examples in support of their
position that the nonpartisan leg-
acy of the U.S. military “is now in
jeopardy.”
The lawmakers expressed con-
cern about the firing of a Space
Force commander over his re-
marks that diversity and inclu-
sion training in the military was
“rooted in critical race theory,
which is rooted in Marxism”; about
West Point training that they said
was “anti-police” and “racist”;
and about the appointment and
subsequent reassignment of the
first chief diversity and inclusion
officer in the U.S. Special Opera-
tions Command after the surfacing
of “his vast trove of far-left social
media posts,” including one that
compared former President Don-
ald Trump to Hitler.
The Republicans also objected to
some of the efforts of Bishop Gar-
rison, a top adviser to Austin, who
in April was appointed  to head
the military’s newly established
Countering Extremism Working
Group, a body tasked with defining
more specifically what constitutes
extremist behavior, among other
objectives.
“Under the guise of reviewing ‘ex-
tremism’ within the ranks of the
Department of Defense, it appears
that political actors such as Bishop
Garrison ... have been given broad
freedom to both catechize and root
out servicemembers who will not
affirm far-left doctrines,” the law-
makers stated.
While the lawmakers didn’t pro-
vide more specifics on Garrison’s
work, a report from The Intercept,
citing internal Pentagon docu-
ments, claimed that Garrison was
designing a social media screening
program that would “continuous-
ly” monitor members of the mili-
tary for “concerning behaviors.”
Pentagon officials didn’t imme-
diately respond to a request by The
MANUEL BALCE CENETA-POOL/GETTY IMAGES
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
visits National Guard troops deployed
at the U.S. Capitol and its perimeter
in Washington on Jan. 29, 2021.
Epoch Times for comment on the
letter.
John Kirby, the Pentagon’s press
secretary, denied the existence of
such a program, telling reporters in
Virginia last week that “there’s no
pilot program run by Mr. Garrison
or the extremist working group to
examine social media.”
“There’s no effort inside this ex-
tremist working group to some-
how spy on every individual in
the military or spend hours and
hours just gleaning through social
media activity, just for the sake of
doing it. This isn’t about some sort
of surveillance program of our own
people,” Kirby said.
Kirby did acknowledge Penta-
gon efforts predating the extrem-
ist working group that “look at the
social media footprint when we are
considering recruits as they come
in,” as part of routine screening of
candidates, which he said was just
“good common sense.”
In announcing actions to coun-
ter extremism in the military and
establishing the working group
led by Garrison, the Pentagon
said the group would “discuss the
Department’s pursuit of scalable
and cost-effective capabilities to
screen publically available elec-
tronic information in accessions
and continuous vetting for national
security positions.”
The group “will make recom-
mendations on further develop-
ment of such capabilities and in-
corporating machine learning and
natural language processing into
social media screening platforms,”
the Pentagon said, adding that the
group “will also ensure training
addresses issues raised by com-
manders and supervisors on ‘gray
areas’ such as reading, following,
and liking extremist material and
content in social media forums
and platforms.”
In February, the Pentagon
chief  ordered a 60-day “stand-
down” by all units to address
the loosely defined problem of
“extremism” in the ranks of the
military.
Days after that announcement,
former U.S. Navy Lt Cmdr. Steven
Rogers told NTD that Austin’s order
was unprecedented, unnecessary,
and a dangerous road that leads to
“communist China.”
“This to me, is dangerous, it looks
like a political litmus test, and it’s
a road that you would only find in
communist China or in the former
Soviet Union,” Rogers said.
GOP Republi-
cans said that the
nonpartisan legacy
of the U.S. military
‘is now in jeopardy.’
Earlier in May, Republican law-
makers announced a bill to combat
critical race theory in U.S. military
training programs.
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) said at
the time that critical race theory “is
a divisive ideology that threatens
to poison the American psyche.”
“The roots of this ideology are
unmistakable. Just as Karl Marx
advocated a social critical ethic of
societal classism—oppressor ver-
sus oppressed—this is neo-Marxist
ideology, cultural Marxism mas-
querading as history and designed
to mislead,” he said.
A8 | CHINA
US Calls for New
Probe Into CCP
Virus Origins Amid
Mounting Attention
on ‘Lab Leak’ Theory
MIMI NGUYEN LY
The United States on May 25
urged the World Health Organi-
zation (WHO) to start a new in-
vestigation into the source of the
CCP virus, amid growing calls
to investigate whether the pan-
demic may have stemmed from
a laboratory accident.
U.S. Health and Human Services
Secretary Xavier Becerra, in re-
marks to the virtual 74th World
Health Assembly, called for the
WHO to launch a “transparent”
second phase to the investigation.
“Phase 2 of the COVID origins
study must be launched with
terms of reference that are trans-
parent, science-based, and give
international experts the indepen-
dence to fully assess the source of
the virus and the early days of the
outbreak,” he said.
Becerra didn’t mention China or
Wuhan directly, where the first-
known human cases of COVID-19
emerged in December 2019.
The comments come after The
Wall Street Journal reported on
May 23 that three researchers at
the Wuhan Institute of Virology
were hospitalized in November
2019 with symptoms consistent
with seasonal flu and COVID-19,
the disease caused by the CCP
(Chinese Communist Party) virus.
The newspaper cited unnamed
U.S. government sources familiar
with a previously undisclosed U.S.
Beijing Blacklists Former US Official
After US Sanctions Chinese Official for
Persecuting Falun Gong
EVA FU
The Beijing regime has added a
former U.S. religious official to its
sanctions list in response to the
United States’ sanctioning of a
Chinese official for his involve-
ment in persecuting followers of
Falun Gong.
Johnnie Moore, a two-time
commissioner of the U.S. Com-
mission on International Reli-
gious Freedom (USCIRF), and his
family members will be barred
from visiting mainland China,
Hong Kong, and Macau, Chinese
foreign ministry spokesperson
Zhao Lijian said a May 26 press
conference.
Moore, who has advocated on
behalf of suppressed religious
groups in China, said it was “an
honor to be sanctioned by the
Chinese Communist Party.”
“The CCP [Chinese Communist
Party] doesn’t understand the dif-
ference between ‘the truth’ and
a ‘lie’ but here’s some truth we
know: they are weaker than they
want us to believe that they are,”
he wrote in a statement on Twit-
ter. “We will not hand our world to
the CCP to victimize the innocent
as they please.”
The new sanction from China
followed the State Department’s
decision to punish Yu Hui, who
formerly headed the Chengdu
city’s branch of the 610 Office, an
extra-legal task force embedded
in institutions all over China to
implement the persecution of
Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, which teaches the
principles of truthfulness, com-
passion, and tolerance, along
with slow-moving exercises, had
an estimated following of 70 mil-
lion to 100 million by 1999, before
the regime subjected adherents to
sweeping persecution.
The 2020 U.S. religious free-
dom report, which was released
intelligence report.
White House press secretary Jen
Psaki, when asked about the mat-
ter on May 24, said that the Biden
administration has “repeatedly
called for the WHO to support an
expert-driven evaluation of the
pandemic’s origins that is free from
interference or politicization.”
“Now, there were phase one re-
sults that came through. We were
not—during that first phase of the
investigation, there was not access
to data, there was not information
provided. And now, we’re hopeful
that WHO can move into a more
transparent, independent phase
two investigation,” Psaki said.
We need access to
the information
that the Chinese
government has.
Jen Psaki,
White House press secretary
On May 25, she told reporters:
“We need access to the informa-
tion that the Chinese government
has in order to make a determi-
nation through the international
bodies that would do this inves-
tigation. And that’s something
we’ve called for many, many
times. And we’ve pressed, with
our international partners for
Rev. Johnnie Moore speaks at The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 2017 National
Tribute Dinner at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., on April 5, 2017.
the same day the United States
sanctioned Yu, cited more than
6,600 arrests and almost 8,600
instances of harassment of ad-
herents across China in 2020.
The State Department and
USCIRF didn’t immediately re-
turn requests by The Epoch Times
for comment.
Levi Browde, executive director
of the New York-based Falun Dafa
Information Center, noted how
“throughout the 1990s, the CCP
applauded Falun Gong’s health
benefits and moral contributions
in many public proclamations,”
only to “reverse itself” after the
practice became immensely
popular.
“For over 20 years, the CCP has
sought to eliminate Falun Gong
through arbitrary detention,
torture, and widespread organ
harvesting, so it’s no surprise
the CCP would make significant
efforts to change the conversation
from human rights abuses to the
character of Falun Gong,” he told
The Epoch Times.
“But it’s all just a smokescreen
to hide the terrible atrocities they
have committed to peaceful, in-
the WHO to support an expert-
driven evaluation of the pandem-
ic’s origins. We would certainly
participate in that with all of our
research—resources from the
United States.
“But given it was an international
pandemic ... we’re going to do that
in coordination with our interna-
tional partners, continue to press
the Chinese to release that data
and information and play a con-
structive role in the second phase
of the investigation.”
The WHO said in a report in
March that the possibility that
the CCP virus may have escaped
a laboratory was “an extremely un-
likely pathway.” The report, writ-
ten jointly with Chinese scientists,
also said that the CCP virus likely
spread via an animal.
The report was a culmination of
the U.N. agency’s joint investiga-
tion with Chinese scientists into
the origins of the CCP virus in
January and February of this year.
Critics have said that the WHO
investigation may lack transpar-
ency and wasn’t independent of
the Chinese communist regime,
which played a significant role in
the CCP virus origins probe.
In May, there have been mul-
FREDERICK M. BROWN/GETTY IMAGES
nocent people.”
Browde noted the irony behind
the regime’s efforts to malign the
spiritual practice.
“It’s always been tragically iron-
ic that the CCP, which controls
peoples lives, terrorizes them
with persecution, and relent-
lessly brainwashes them, makes
clumsy attempts to label Falun
Gong, which is a Buddhist-based
spiritual practice with no mem-
bership and is free to learn, an
‘evil cult,’” he said. “There is no
bigger cult in the world than the
Chinese Communist Party.”
According to the latest data from
Minghui, a website set up in the
United States to document the
persecution, at least 504 people
have been sentenced to jail this
year through April.
Shi Shaoping, a 50-year-old Fa-
lun Gong practitioner who gradu-
ated with a master’s degree from
China’s top science academy, the
state-run Chinese Academy of
Sciences, was recently handed a
nine-year jail term for his belief.
He previously served a 10-year
sentence for talking to people
about the persecution.
THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
tiple calls to further investigate
the origins of the CCP virus, in-
cluding from international sci-
entists, the UK government, and
U.S. House GOP leaders, with an
emphasis on investigating the
laboratory leak theory.
The United States, the European
Union, and more than a dozen
other nations have also previous-
ly raised concerns about the WHO
study, pointing to the report’s sig-
nificant delay and China’s refusal
to share crucial raw data.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious
disease expert and head of the U.S.
National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, said in early
May that he’s “not convinced” that
the CCP virus pandemic came
about naturally and that the possi-
bility “certainly exists” that it may
have been a result of a laboratory
accident.
Scott Gottlieb, former head of the
Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), told CNBC on May 24 that
growing circumstantial evidence
may indicate a possible laboratory
origin, pointing to reports of the
researchers at the Wuhan lab hav-
ing fallen ill in November 2019.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director
of the Centers for Disease Control
Senators Move to
Close ‘Security
Loophole’ on
Chinese State-
Backed Firms
EVA FU
A bipartisan bill aims to bar Chi-
nese state-linked firms from ex-
ploiting a “security loophole” to
enter U.S. technology markets.
The Secure Equipment Act of
2021, introduced by Sens. Marco
Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ed Markey (D-
Mass.), targets major Chinese tele-
com providers, including Huawei,
ZTE, Hytera Communications
Corporation, Hangzhou Hikvision
Digital Technology Company, and
Dahua Technology Company. The
Federal Communication Com-
mission (FCC) has flagged all five
as a threat to national security.
We need to act now
to strengthen our
national security.
Sen. Marco Rubio
Under the act, the FCC, which
oversees all interstate and foreign
communications by radio, tele-
vision, wire, satellite, and cable,
would cease reviewing or approv-
ing any product or services from
the named companies.
“The Chinese Communist Party
subsidizes these companies and
exploits loopholes in our laws
to allow malicious actors to sell
compromised equipment and
services in the U.S.,” Rubio said.
By “loopholes,” Rubio was refer-
ring to regulations that the FCC
adopted last year mandating
U.S. telecom carriers to remove
and replace gear from Chinese
entities deemed to be a national
security risk. The rules, however,
didn’t apply to equipment pur-
chased with private funding.
An FCC review found that Hua-
wei alone has seen more than
Xavier Becerra,
secretary
of the U.S.
Department
of Health
and Human
Services,
removes his
mask before
speaking to
the media in
Long Beach,
Calif., on May
13, 2021.
and Prevention, said at a Senate
hearing last week that it “certain-
ly” was “one possibility” that the
CCP virus pandemic may have
been a result of a lab incident.
But she added that most corona-
viruses “generally come from an
animal origin.”
A WHO spokesman, Tarik
Jasarevic, asking about a follow-
up mission, told Reuters on May 24
that the agency was reviewing the
recommendations from the WHO
report at the technical level.
“The technical teams will pre-
pare a proposal for the next stud-
ies that will need to be carried
out, and will present that to the
director-general for his consider-
ation,” he said, referring to WHO
Director-General Tedros Adha-
nom Ghebreyesus.
Jasarevic, noting Tedros’s re-
marks on March 30, said that fur-
ther studies would be needed in
a range of areas, including on the
early detection of cases and clus-
ters, the potential roles of animal
markets, transmission via the food
chain, and the laboratory incident
hypothesis.
Eva Fu and Reuters contributed
to this report.
3,000 of its applications approved
since 2018, including on network
equipment and tracking devices,
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr
said on March 30. The FCC simi-
larly greenlighted Hikvision and
Dahua applications for video sur-
veillance and facial recognition
equipment.
“The status quo is danger-
ous, and we need to act now to
strengthen our national security
and protect our critical infra-
structure,” Rubio said.
Markey called the legislation a
“commonsense proposal.”
“In today’s increasingly con-
nected world, we must animate
our technology with our values,
especially in the 5G networks that
are critical to our future economic
prosperity,” he said. The bill “will
make sure all of our devices and
equipment are safe for consumers
and secure for the United States.”
Carr welcomed the gesture in a
May 24 statement, saying it was a
“quick and decisive action nec-
essary to safeguard our national
security.”
“It is time to close this glaring
loophole,” he said. “Once we have
determined that Huawei or other
gear poses an unacceptable na-
tional security risk, it makes no
sense to allow that exact same
equipment to be purchased and
inserted into our communica-
tions networks.
“The presence of these insecure
devices in our networks is the
threat, not the source of funding
used to purchase them.”
A growing number of countries,
the most recent among them In-
dia, Ethiopia, and Romania, have
moved to keep Chinese entities
out of their 5G infrastructure over
security concerns.
PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP /AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
The Huawei logo at the Web Summit
in Lisbon, Portugal, on Nov. 6, 2019.
 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
CCP and Western Media Face New Scrutiny After
Both Decried Lab Leak Theory as ‘Conspiracy’
CONTINUED FROM A1
letter in Science magazine on May
14, stating that the lab incident the-
ory shouldn’t be ignored and that
investigation into the virus’s origin
should continue.
The idea gained steam in mid-Feb-
ruary, after World Health Organiza-
tion (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus contradicted his own
agency’s report on the origin of the
virus. The report ruled that it was
“extremely unlikely” that the virus
originated in a laboratory, while
Tedros said that further investiga-
tion was needed. The WHO’s in-
vestigation was marred by a lack of
transparency from Beijing and the
reported ties to China found regard-
ing some of the investigators.
The month of May saw more rever-
sals of the earlier trend to dismiss
the lab origin theory, with Dr. An-
thony Fauci, head of the U.S. Nation-
al Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, saying on May 11 that he is
now “not convinced” that the virus
developed naturally. His comments
were in response to a question by a
staff member of fact-checking web-
site PolitiFact.
A few days later, PolitiFact quietly
retracted a fact check it published in
September 2020 in which it labeled
the claim by a Hong Kong virologist
that COVID-19 originated in a lab as
inaccurate and a “debunked con-
spiracy theory.” In May 2020, Fauci
had dismissed the lab leak theory
in a National Geographic interview,
saying the evidence “strongly sug-
gests” a natural origin.
On May 24, Vox amended an edi-
tor’s note on a March 2020 article
that claimed the lab leak theory had
been “debunked,” stating in its up-
date that the “scientific consensus
has shifted.”
In the latest development on the
matter,  the U.S. Health and Human
Services Secretary Xavier Becerra
said on May 25 that there should be a
new transparent study into the virus
origin and investigators should be
given independence to make proper
evaluations. The UK government
also said on May 24 that the WHO
investigation needs to be “transpar-
ent and independent.”
Previously, 14 countries, includ-
ing Canada and the United States,
had raised concerns about WHO’s
study into the virus’s origin, asking
for a “transparent and independent
analysis and evaluation” in a March
30 statement. The former head of the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, Robert Redfield, a vi-
rologist, said on March 26 that he
believes the virus originated from
a Chinese lab.
Citing a previously undisclosed
U.S. intelligence report, a Wall
Street Journal article published on
May 23 reported that three research-
ers from China’s Wuhan Institute
of Virology (WIV) sought hospital
care with COVID-like symptoms
in November 2019—about a month
before the appearance of “patient
zero,” as identified by the Chinese
communist regime.
This revelation matches the con-
tents of a fact sheet released by
the State Department in the final
days of the Trump administration,
which said several WIV research-
ers became sick in the fall of 2019
with symptoms consistent with CO-
VID-19.
Beijing was quick to dismiss the
State Department’s claims in Janu-
ary as “conspiracy theories,” calling
the fact sheet a “lie sheet.”
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
A worker stands inside the P4 laboratory on the campus of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, Hubei Prov-
ince, China, on Feb. 23, 2017.
But communist China was hardly
the only one to revert to “conspiracy”
Our investi- labeling throughout the pandem-
gators and fo- ic. The New York Times, in a Feb.
3 Twitter post linking to its article
rensic virolo- on the WHO team’s visit to the WIV
gists have at the time, wrote, “[The WIV’s] lab
not had full has been the focus of unfounded
conspiracy theories promoted by
access to the the Trump administration about
data that is the pandemic’s origins.” An article
available in by CNN on the same day read, “A
team of World Health Organization
China. What investigators in Wuhan are visiting
they see is a laboratory Wednesday that has
too often been the focus of conspiracies and
speculation about the origin of the
what the CCP coronavirus pandemic.”
wants them
Influential Paper
to see. One of the most influential docu-
Anders Corr, ments early in the pandemic that
publisher, Journal shaped the discussion on the ori-
of Political Risk gin of the virus was a statement
published by a group of scientists
in the prestigious medical journal
The Lancet on Feb. 19, 2020. Titled
“Statement in support of the scien-
tists, public health professionals,
and medical professionals of China
combatting COVID-19,” it stated:
“We stand together to strongly con-
demn conspiracy theories suggest-
ing that COVID-19 does not have a
natural origin.”
The nonprofit investigative re-
search group U.S. Right to Know
(USRTK) said in a November 2020
post that, according to documents
it obtained under public record re-
quests, the scientist who wrote the
first draft of the statement was Pe-
ter Daszak, head of New York-based
A sign out- EcoHealth Alliance. USRTK said it
side of the Wall was employees of Daszak’s organi-
Street Jour- zation—which has channeled U.S.
nal’s offices on government funding for coronavirus
Sixth Avenue research at the WIV—who organized
in New York, in the statement.
this file photo. However, the statement published
in The Lancet says, “We declare no
competing interests.”
“Daszak lacks credibility because
The Lancet letter of Feb. 19 that
he drafted and organized falsely
claimed no conflict of interest,”
China scholar Anders Corr, pub-
lisher of Journal of Political Risk and
an Epoch Times contributor, said
in an email.
The World Health “In fact, Daszak’s organization
Organization helped fund research at the Wuhan
headquarters in Institute of Virology. That research
Geneva on Aug. was of coronaviruses.”
17, 2020. Daszak was also part of the WHO
team that conducted a fact-finding
mission into the origin of the virus
in China earlier this year. And he
was among the WHO experts who
sparked controversy due to their
ties to China. In addition to chan-
neling U.S. National Institute of
Health money to WIV, his organiza-
tion received Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) money, he said in a 2018
conference sponsored by a Chinese
state media.
Daszak didn’t respond to a request
for comment from The Epoch Times
by press time.
Author and science journalist
Nicholas Wade said that if the virus
“had indeed escaped from research
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
he funded, Dr. Daszak would be
potentially culpable.” Wade made
this statement in a lengthy article
published in the respected science
journal Bulletin of Atomic Scien-
tists, in which he established the
reasons why the lab leak theory
can’t be dismissed.
‘Poor Science’
For a number of years, Wade was
a staff member of The New York
Times and the prestigious science
journals Nature and Science. He
said that another document influ-
ential in shaping the discourse on
the virus’s origin and dismissing
the lab leak theory was a March 17
letter by several scientists published
in the journal Nature Medicine. The
letter presented the authors’ rea-
soning for ruling out any alternative
to a natural origin.
Disputing the reasoning in the let-
ter, Wade said the claims are a case
of “poor science.”
Kristian G. Andersen, the lead au-
thor of the Nature Medicine letter,
didn’t respond to a request for com-
ment by press time.
Wade wrote that the letters in The
Lancet and Nature were political
rather than scientific.
“The statements were designed to
have a political effect, not to pres-
ent the scientific facts,” he said in
an email.
Among the reasons that a natural
origin for the virus hasn’t yet been
confirmed is that scientists still
haven’t found evidence of the virus’s
initial animal-to-human infection.
“The intermediary host species of
SARS1 was identified within four
months of the epidemic’s outbreak,
and the host of MERS within nine
months. Yet some 15 months after
the SARS2 [SARS-CoV-2, which
causes the COVID-19 disease]
pandemic began, and after a pre-
sumably intensive search, Chinese
researchers had failed to find ei-
ther the original bat population, or
the intermediate species to which
SARS2 might have jumped, or any
serological evidence that any Chi-
nese population, including that of
Wuhan, had ever been exposed to
the virus prior to December 2019,”
Wade’s article reads.
Wade said part of the problem
causing many members of the media
to be quick in dismissing any theory
besides a natural occurrence is that,
unlike political reporters, science
reporters aren’t fully vigilant in in-
vestigating their source’s motives.
Another reason “is the migration
of much of the media toward the left
of the political spectrum,” he said.
“Because President Trump said
the virus had escaped from a Wu-
han lab, editors gave the idea little
credence,” Wade said.
Data Access Denied
Many scientists and China schol-
ars have repeatedly called on Bei-
jing to allow a proper investigation
into the origin of the virus, which
would help put an end to the divi-
sive speculation.
But Corr says the regime has been
CHINA | A9
able to steer the narrative on the ori-
gin by denying access to basic data.
“Our investigators and forensic vi-
rologists have not had full access to
the data that is available in China.
What they see is too often what the
CCP wants them to see,” he said.
“So when our investigators walk
away from an investigation in China
saying ‘most of the evidence indi-
cates against the lab leak hypothesis,
and therefore the lab leak hypothesis
is likely untrue,’ they are not using
good scientific methodology.”
Marcus Kolga, a senior fellow with
the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Lau-
rier Institute and a disinformation
expert, said regimes like those in
China and Russia have departments
with thousands of people dedicated
to the creation and amplification of
disinformation.
“It is certainly in the Chinese Com-
munist Party’s interest to promote
any narrative that casts doubt on the
origin of the virus,” Kolga told The
Epoch Times.
“If the virus did originate some-
where other than a wet market or
elsewhere, I’m sure that the Chinese
Communist Party will amplify any
sort of narratives that would put that
in doubt.”
He said that early into the pan-
demic, the Chinese regime hid in-
formation about the virus and didn’t
take appropriate action to stop the
spread.
“Had they acted earlier, we could
have saved millions of lives,” Kolga
said.
Racist Accusations a Political Tactic
Another way the regime has influ-
enced the conversation on the pan-
demic is by labeling any criticism
of its conduct on the pandemic as
racist, Kolga said.
According to Kolga, the CCP
learned this tactic from the So-
viet Union, which labeled anyone
who was a critic of it as a fascist or
neo-Nazi.
“These regimes understand that
we are very sensitive to accusations
of racism because of the diversity
and the broad tolerance we have in
this country. And then they engage
in the use of such labels and such
accusations in order to discredit any
criticism of those regimes,” he said.
Ontario-based bar owner Alex
Petro was the subject of scorn by
multiple media reports and local
politicians over a sign he put up at
his bar that referred to the virus
as “the China virus.” The criticism
didn’t subside even after he clari-
fied that his sign was to criticize the
Chinese communist regime, which
oppresses the Chinese people, and
that he loves the people of China.
This attempt to cast any criticism
of China for its handling of the virus
outbreak as racist has appeared in
social media advertisements by Chi-
nese state media, seen by millions.
There have also been efforts by
Chinese officials to pin the blame
for the virus on specific countries,
including a claim by foreign minis-
try spokesman Zhao Lijian that the
virus originated in the United States
and was brought to Wuhan by the
U.S. Army. The State Department
summoned the U.S. ambassador
over the incident.
A recent report by the Brussels-
based International Federation of
Journalists said that Beijing has used
its global media infrastructure “to
seed positive narratives about China
in national media, as well as mobi-
lizing more novel tactics such as
disinformation.”
Corr says that, besides the CCP’s ef-
forts, racism labels are also a result of
communist and socialist influence
in the West.
“Communist influence more gen-
erally—some of which has become
organic to Western societies and
some of which shades into demo-
cratic forms of socialism—has allied
electorally with identity politics to
become hyper-critical of race, gen-
der, sexuality, post-colonial, and
class issues,” he said.
Isabel Van Brugen, Frank Fang,
and Zachary Stieber contributed
to this report.
 A10 | WORLD THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021

Volunteers in India Provide Free,

Home-Cooked Food for COVID-19 Patients
REBECCA CONWAY/GETTY IMAGES

CONTINUED FROM A1

in need of nutritious, home-
cooked meals.
Ankita Sahay, 29, a manage-
ment professional from India’s
IT city, Bangalore, started serv-
ing her home-cooked meals af-
ter seeing her cousin—who was
bedridden, alone, and in quar-
antine—ailing during COVID’s
second wave in April.
Sahay realized that there were
others in the city in quarantine
or without housemaids, or sick
senior citizens who have had no
support during the lockdown.
She started reaching out on
social media to offer her free
home-cooked food on April 26.
Today, she’s supported by 45
volunteers who have an out-
reach throughout the city and
have already served 1,500 meals.
Sahay plans soon to reach out to
four more cities with the initia-
tive she calls “Seher,” meaning
“dawn.”
“So there are two parts to it.
One is supplying and the other
is demand, right? So I onboard
volunteers, I have a tie-up with
our packaging vendor, I buy all
the packaging materials from
that particular vendor. And I
send out this packaging material COURTESY OF LINET RASHMI COURTESY OF ANKITA SAHAY

to each of these folks who are

volunteers,” she said.
“The reason being that I do not
want to differentiate between
any family. The quantity that
goes out to each family should
be the same,” said Sahay, adding
that she and her husband had
initially funded the operation.
As the story became more wide-
ly known and the operation grew,
donations started pouring in.
Samantha Pasha, 52, a former
event manager and a homemak-
er, was actively involved along
with her 14-year-old adopted
daughter during last year’s lock-
down. The duo was supporting
migrant workers with food and
necessity kits.
But then Pasha tested positive.
This year, at the time of the sec-
ond pandemic surge, Pasha was
looking for a way to do some-
thing from within her home, and
on April 28, she joined Sahay to
serve “nutritious meals” to her
city’s inhabitants.
“You feel your body can’t take
that kind of beating again. I
said I’m sitting at home, I’m not
going anywhere. But you know
the person in me is like, I want
to do for others. I want to do
[something] in this situation.
Otherwise, I feel very helpless,”
Pasha said.
“So it is therapeutic for me to
do these things. It makes me
feel really good about myself,”
she said. Pasha cooks 84 meals
per week and has been the most
engaged cook out of all the
volunteers at Seher, according to
Sahay.
Sahay said the volunteers,
which include many who have a
professional life and others who
are senior citizens, have differ-
ent schedules.
“Some are available during the
weekend. Some available only
twice a week. Some people are
available only on weekdays and
not on weekends,” she said.
Spirit of Doing Good
Nirupama Ramesh, 60, is one of
a few wives from the veterans’
MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Volunteers prepare
meals to be donated to
COVID-19 patients, at the
Gurudwara Bangla Sahib
in New Delhi, India, on
May 2, 2021.
To be completely
honest it is a way
for us volunteers
to cope up with
all the distress
around us as
well, and the
gratification is
paramount.
Nazish Fatima, analytics
and data science engineer
A woman walks past a
COVID-19 coronavirus
containment zone in
front of closed shops in a
street during a lockdown
to contain the surge of
coronavirus cases, in
Bangalore, India, on July
20, 2020.
Notes sent along with meals by Seher
volunteers to Linet Rashmi while she
was recovering from COVID-19 and
her mother was suffering from it.
community in the city to join the
Sahay team, inspired by wanting
to do good. She said the spirit of
service is woven into the lives of
the families of army officers.
“Since the time I was married,
we officers’ wives had to look
after the welfare of the families
of soldiers. When our husbands
were in border areas, looking
after each other was the done
thing. Our unit was more than a
family,” said Ramesh. She says
the same spirit translated for her
into cooking food for patients.
“Basically we are all house-
wives, and we cook for COVID
patients. So you’re not doing it on
a very large scale or on a com-
mercial scale. It’s basically, what-
ever each one can do. Whatever
we cook at home, we pack it up
and we send it to the patient or
the attendant,” she said.
Ramesh said during a crisis
like the pandemic, each person
has a choice to do something
and elevate the situation.
“Each one of us, no matter
from whatever status of the
society he or she is, we can do
something. For example, you
must be having some cook or
somebody working for you. If
you can only vaccinate, where
there are free vaccinations, or
even paying, let’s say, three, four
hundred or thousand bucks for
A home-cooked meal served to COVID-19 patients in Bangalore, India, by volun-
teers with Seher.
fected, I feel like this is the clos-
est I can get to helping them out,”
said Fatima. “Every meal I cook
is with a ton of love and effort.
It makes me emotional to think
this is helping someone heal.”
India is going through such
a crisis that helping in just one
way, such as through donations,
isn’t sufficient, according to
Fatima.
“There are old people, single
mothers, kids who can’t even
order online. I feel like this was
the best way to help them out.
To be completely honest it is a
way for us volunteers to cope up
with all the distress around us
as well, and the gratification is
paramount,” she said.
This spirit of doing good is
spreading the story of Seher on
social media. When Sahay’s
mother-in-law shared her story
on LinkedIn, it began trending;
one of the investors of Dunzo,
a delivery company, tagged her
company to help out Sahay.
“After that Dunzo launched
an initiative to help people who
are delivering for needy. I wrote
them an email and they replied,”
said Sahay. The company pro-
vides subsidized rates to her to
help deliver food to the patients
or their attendants.
Timely, and Comes With a Note
people, would you be able to give
us some food for at least a week?”
Subramanian said.
“First day onwards, I saw that
she was sending very nutritious,
very good food. The menus were
very thoughtful. Very nicely
done,” she said, adding that
they were always delivered on
time and came with a “get well
soon” note.
Like Subramanian, 47-year-old
Linet Rashmi was desperate, as
she had just recovered from CO-
VID and wasn’t in a position to
look after her 77-year-old moth-
er, who had become infected
and was completely bedridden.
She came across a forwarded
message from Sahay on What-
sApp, contacted her, and was
provided prompt help.
“And she needed, very hygien-
ic, like in a liquid, semi-liquid
food,” said Rashmi. “Such kind
of food which was very, very ap-
propriate for my mom. And for
myself. Also, it was so good that
she recovered within 15 days,
actually.”
Rashmi said during that time,
she was battling depression and
the help was “God-sent.”
“Every day, those notes just
pulled me out from depression.”
There are many small and
large groups around India cur-
rently supplying cooked and

your maid and cook. Then, you
can imagine how many people
will be vaccinated! OK, that’s
one of the things that all of us
can do,” she said.
Unlike Ramesh, 30-year-old
Nazish Fatima, an analytics and
data science engineer, learned to
cook only last year amid the lock-
down from YouTube videos and
her mother. Fatima has become
the most eager dinner cook on
the Seher project; she’s cooked 97
dinners in less than a month.
“As someone who isn’t a health
worker or direct family of the af-
Indu Subramanian, 83, and her
92-year-old husband were alone
at home, and when the lock-
down occurred, their house-
hold help couldn’t reach them.
Someone in her building put up
Sahay’s WhatsApp message for
the free food service and that’s
how the senior couple reached
out.
“So I was diagnosed with cervi-
cal spondylosis. And I couldn’t
get up and my neck was [hurting]
too much. Maids are not coming
for the last nearly one month. I
just asked her, we are two elderly
uncooked food to people affect-
ed by the deadly second wave of
the pandemic. Sahay said they
are her inspiration. Pasha said
it’s “human nature” to reach out
with help whenever someone is
suffering, and the group is just
doing that.
“You can’t control what goes
outside, but you can control
what goes on inside—be strong
and be positive. Hope this food
nourishes you,” is a note that
Team Seher sent to Rashmi,
which she shared with The Ep-
och Times.
 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 WORLD | A11

Belarus Releases 2nd Confession Video Following

Forced Plane Landing in Minsk
ONLINER.BY VIA AP
LILY ZHOU

A second video has been released

following the arrests of Belarusian
opposition journalist Roman Pro-
tasevich and his girlfriend  Sofia
Sapega on May 23.
The pair were on their way to Vilni-
us, Lithuania, from Athens, Greece,
when Belarus authorities alerted
their flight of a bomb threat, and
President Alexander Lukashenko
ordered a MiG fighter jet to escort
the plane to land in Minsk.
According to the European Hu-
manities University, a Belarusian
university in Lithuania where Sape-
ga is studying, Sapega was going
back to Vilnius to defend her master’s
thesis after her vacation in Greece
with Protasevich.
In the video, first posted on a pro-
government Telegram channel
on May 25, Sapega was sitting in a
chair, speaking at a fast pace, and
looking around as though reciting
something.
“I am Sapega Sofia Andreevna, I
was born on Feb. 10, 1998. I am [a]
citizen of the Russian Federation, I
live in Lithuania, Vilnius. On May
23, 2021, I flew on the same plane
with Roman Protasevich. I am also STRINGER/REUTERS

editor of Telegram channel ‘Cher-
naya Kniga,’ which publishes private
information about internal affairs
officers,” the 23-year-old student said
in the video.
Sapega’s mother, Anna Dudich,
told Reuters on May 25 that she was
worried about her daughter’s health
and safety.
“This is the main thing which I fear
now,” Dudich told Reuters, adding
that  Sapega “is a very tough girl
in a moral sense” and she will get
through.
Dudich said her daughter had been
going out with Protasevich for less
than six months and that she was “in
the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“My hopes are now probably based
on a miracle and on the knowledge
that my daughter is definitely not
guilty of anything,” she said. “She
simply showed up in the wrong place
at the wrong time.”
Neither Dudich nor Sapega’s law-
yer have been able to contact Sape-
ga since her detention, and have
not been informed of any charges
against her, but her lawyer was told
on May 25 that Sapega’s detention
had been extended to two months.
Russian Foreign Ministry said in
a statement that Sapega was arrest-
ed “in connection with the suspicion
of having committed, between Au-
gust and September 2020, offenses
under several articles of the Belaru-
sian Criminal Code.”
Another video showing Protase-
vich admitting to the involvement
Security personnel in organizing a mass protest was
use a sniffer dog to released a day earlier.
check the luggage of “I am now in the Minsk detention
passengers on the center Number 1. I can state that I
Ryanair plane carrying don’t have any health issues, includ-
opposition figure Raman ing heart or any other organs’ dis-
Pratasevich, which was ease,” he said in the video.
traveling from Athens to “Police officers treat me properly
Vilnius and was diverted and according to the law. Also, I now
to Minsk after a bomb
continue to cooperate with the in-
threat, in Minsk National
Airport in Belarus on vestigation and give a confession on
May 23, 2021. organizing mass protests in Minsk,”
he said.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belar-
us’s exiled opposition leader, said
that the two detainees were “clearly”
under duress.
“This is terrifying. I’m worried
about Roman Protasevich & Sofia
Sapega. I am worried about all po-
Sapega litical prisoners,” Tsikhanouskaya
was sitting wrote on Twitter.
in a chair, “Clearly, Roman is beaten in pris-
on, he & Sofia are under psychologi-
speaking at cal pressure. Lukashenko terrorizes
a fast pace, the whole country. We must fight the
and looking regime’s impunity.”
Speaking to the EU Parliament
around on May 26,  Tsikhanouskaya ac-
as though cused President Alexander Lukash-
reciting enko of turning Belarus into “a North
Korea of Europe—non-transparent,
something. unpredictable, and dangerous.”
British Prime Minister Boris John-
son said on May 25 after the re-
lease of the first confessional video
that it was “deeply distressing” to
watch and warned of “consequenc-
Opposition blogger and activist Roman
Protasevich arrives for a court hearing
in Minsk, Belarus, on April 10, 2017.
es” after one of his cabinet ministers
said she wouldn’t be surprised if the
confession had been coerced.
Both the UK and the EU have
summoned their respective Be-
larusian ambassadors, requested
airlines to avoid Belarusian air-
space, and said they would con-
sider further sanctions.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Cana-
dian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
have also said they are looking at op-
tions to further sanction Belarus.
Lukashenko on May 26 claimed
that the bomb threat, which the
Belarusian authorities used to
ground Protasevich’s flight, came
from Switzerland.
“The information about the bomb
came from abroad, from Switzer-
land. And Athens, Vilnius, and
Minsk had got the message at the
same time,” he said.
Belarusian authorities said on
May 24 that the threat came from
the Hamas terrorist group. Lukash-
enko said on May 26 that it doesn’t
matter where the threat came from,
but the plane was near a Belarusian
nuclear power plant.
“Hamas or not Hamas, it doesn’t
matter today,” he said.
“The crew had time to decide.
There were 123 passengers from
various countries and six crew
members in the air, in danger. And
in the flight area, for your informa-
tion, you know it well—the Belaru-
sian nuclear power plant is placed.
The plane diversion happened near
the plant,” he said.
The six-term president told Parlia-
ment that “ill-wishers” from both
outside and inside the country were
waging a “modern hybrid warfare.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Pes-
kov told reporters that members of
the Kremlin “see no reason to mis-
trust Belarus counterparts” regard-
ing the bomb threat.
“As far as we understand, they
didn’t land the plane on their own
initiative, they followed the rules in
the event of a threat, and here we see
no reason to mistrust Belarus coun-
terparts,” he said.
Reuters contributed to this report.

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Students protest at Finsbury Square, under a banner reading “Capitalism isn’t working,” for a demonstration against cuts in education funding, in London, in this file photo.
Guilt, Condemnation,
and Totalitarian Punishment
MARK HENDRICKSON
We don’t hear much today
about the religious doc-
trine of damnation—the
belief that everlasting
punishment awaits sin-
ners. How much of that is
due to religionists moderat-
ing their theological views or simply the
ongoing secularization of society is an
interesting question.
Regardless, although such harsh judg-
mentalism may cause uncomfortable
tensions between people, it generally is
harmless. We have a separation of church
and state that, while protecting the free
exercise of religion, doesn’t confer the
ability of any sect to impose its doctrines
forcibly on others. Religionists may con-
demn us verbally or in their hearts, but
they have no power to control or punish
us. That’s the Creator’s prerogative, and
we’ll just have to wait until we leave this
world to see how accurate those bleak
pronouncements of damnation are.
There is, however, a doctrine of guilt,
condemnation, and punishment that
threatens every American’s earthly
well-being and happiness. I’m referring
to the political left’s fanatical embrace of
certain quasi-religious doctrines—spe-
cifically, that Americans collectively are
guilty of various sins that merit condem-
nation. The progressive punishment for
our sins is to subject us to a stern totali-
tarian agenda that offers the only salva-
tion from our alleged sins.
In this humanist “religion,” progres-
sives, socialists, pagan environmentalists,
et al., have assumed a moral superiority
that they believe confers upon them the
right to act as judge and jury, to pronounce
America and Americans “guilty” of alleged
sins and to condemn and punish us by
forcing us to submit to their elitist plans.
The form of that punishment—indeed,
the only way for us to expiate our “sins”
in their eyes—is for us to submit to the
progressives’ own radical socialistic cen-
tral economic plan that offers salvation if
we “transform” our society into a pro-
gressive utopia. The essence of their all-
encompassing central plan is to impose
government control over our thought,
OPINION
THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 • A13
our speech, and our lives.
Let us briefly review a few of the guilt
trips that leftists are using to justify impos-
ing tyrannical measures on the American
people to achieve their utopian vision.
1. White Guilt
Epoch Times contributor Larry Elder
gave a marvelous talk last week at Prin-
cipia College, during which he powerfully
debunked the myth of white guilt. (You
can read more in Elder’s book “What’s
Race Got to Do with It?” and in his inter-
views with The Epoch Times. See also
Brandon Tatum’s views.)
Leftists seek to impose collective guilt
on white Americans—many, both living
and dead, who have steadfastly fought for,
promoted, and defended racial justice—
for the sins of certain white individuals,
most of whom have long been dead. Blind
to the reality that there are racists among
all races, the collective condemnation of
an entire race is itself racist. It also illus-
trates the perversity of “social justice”—
collectivist remedies that unjustly trample
the rights of innocent individuals.
Trying to punish so-called white guilt
is also unwise and counterproductive.
Once you start trying to indiscriminately
punish a whole race of people for the past
sins of others, you have opened a Pando-
ra’s box. Think of Israelis and Arabs in the
Middle East—the more they try to settle
old scores, the more the present genera-
tion suffers. Do we want our children
to shoulder the same burden of hatred,
injustice, and violence that so devastated
the lives of our ancestors, or can we love
them enough to break the cycle of con-
flict? (Indeed, imagine what a hostile
place the world would be if white Ameri-
cans were to seek vengeance against the
descendants of the often cruel and unjust
oppressions of their own ancestors.)
2. Success Guilt
Dennis Prager wrote about this just last
week. Both Jews and Americans have
shared a cultural history that was to a con-
siderable degree shaped by their religious
faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. Both of these related cultures have
achieved outstanding success relative to
other societies and cultures in the world.
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Sadly, success has triggered the envy,
resentment, and hatred of many who were
born into societies where those cultural
values and the success they tend to spawn
have been absent. How dare those Jews
and Americans accomplish so much! They
must be punished for such effrontery.
3. Capitalist Guilt
Prager alluded to this, too, in his column.
Anti-capitalism has been around for
nearly two centuries—ever since capital-
ist entrepreneurs found ways to lift the
masses of people out of poverty. The
great Austrian economist Ludwig von
Mises published a book titled “The Anti-
Capitalist Mentality” in 1956, in which he
diagnosed the feelings of inferiority that
anti-capitalist intellectuals struggle with.
Many of these highly educated intellectu-
als just can’t stand seeing the masses of
people richly reward entrepreneurs who
serve their needs and desires, while at the
same time placing relatively little value
on the intellectuals’ abstract philosophies
and academic ideologies. Billionaires (un-
less they’re pigging out with government
subsidies) are society’s benefactors. They
deserve our gratitude, not our hostility.
The anti-rich-people animus stems
from gross economic ignorance, such as
persistent belief in the long-defunct 16th-
century Montaigne dogma, which falsely
asserted that one man’s gain is another’s
loss. More than two centuries of capitalist
history have shattered that fallacy.
Continued on A14
A14 | OPINION
Guilt, Condemnation, and Totalitarian Punishment
CONTINUED FROM A13
4. Profit Guilt
Indeed, as even Karl Marx understood,
capitalism excels at producing wealth, and
yet Marx and his followers today decry the
profit-making process that has made pos-
sible today’s unprecedented wealth for an
unprecedented number of people.
It’s tragic that so many Americans
don’t understand two crucial aspects
of profits: First, profits are new wealth;
the only way for a society to get richer
is through the production of additional
value—value that is signaled by profits.
Second, because entrepreneurs in a
capitalist system compete to best serve
the people’s wants, while businesses in
socialist systems have to produce what
their political rulers—a socialist society’s
elite—command. Obviously, people are
going to be better off when production is
oriented toward their preferences than
the government plan’s dictates.
There’s no nuance in the leftists’
thinking, no mitigating factors,
no sense of context; in their view,
non-leftists are wrong—period.
5. Prosperity Guilt
A core value of today’s environmental-
ism is the misanthropic and incredibly
wrong belief that human prosperity is an
evil that will render Earth uninhabitable.
These ideologues are ignorant of the en-
vironmental “Kuznets curve.” It’s a total
myth that the more prosperous people
get, the more polluted their environment
gets. The way the world really works is
that after an initial increase of pollution
as poor societies climb out of subsistence
standards of living, the increasing wealth
of those societies enables them to direct
wealth and effort to the cause of environ-
DILBERT
PEANUTS
RED AND ROVER
GRAND AVENUE
MUTT & JEFF
mental protection. The felicitous result
is that economically advanced countries
pollute less than developing countries.
Alas, so fanatical are greens in their belief
in the evil of humanity that they remain
willfully blind to two great environmental
blessings that have come to the present
generation: First, that temperatures have
modestly risen above the grimly cold Little
Ice Age, making life safer; second, that the
CO2 enrichment of Earth’s atmosphere
over the past century has produced a huge
greening of the planet. We should cele-
brate, not mourn, but the funereal guilt-
mongers want us to mourn.
Condemnation
So, here’s the upshot of all the guilt trips
that leftists are foisting on us: In the grip
of their beliefs—their fanatical, unques-
tioning faith in the guilt of the American
people for the above-listed “offenses”—
the left condemns all who dare to dissent
from their catechism. We dissidents are,
ipso facto, bad people; thus, we deserve
to suffer and be punished for our sins.
There’s no nuance in the leftists’ think-
ing, no mitigating factors, no sense of con-
text; in their view, non-leftists are wrong—
period. Consequently, the United States
gets no credit for the considerable progress
we have made and continue to make.
Instead, we’re deemed guilty because we
haven’t yet fully realized our ideals. As I’ve
written before, to leftists, the perfect has
become the mortal enemy of the good.
If, by the way, you object to my charac-
terization of leftists as “fanatical,” per-
haps “messianic” would be a more ap-
propriate adjective. Think of Sen. Edward
Markey (D-Mass.) who, when unveiling
the grand socialist central economic
plan known as “the Green New Deal,”
described the proposal as “a mission to
save all of creation.” All of creation?! If
that isn’t messianic, then nothing is.
Be aware of how often leftists use the
religious language of salvation. Often,
COMICS
AP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER
A woman holds a placard reading “white priv-
ilege” during a demonstration in Barcelona,
Spain, on June 14, 2020.
when they promote their vision, they
assert that their policies are necessary
to “save” us—and tragically often, to
save us from imaginary problems (e.g.,
wealth, success, a greening world, etc.).
This messianic zeal has congealed into
a hatred of conservatives, libertarians,
Republicans—literally any American
who dissents from the leftist agenda. The
left has become a Leninist movement,
embracing hatred of their political oppo-
nents with all the fervor that Lenin himself
mustered.
Totalitarian Punishment
The hatred that the left feels toward their
political opponents is manifest in their
aggressive attempts to obliterate, destroy,
and smash those opponents by cancel-
ing and silencing them. It’s seen in their
blatant effort to do an end-run around
democracy by resorting to such machina-
tions as D.C. statehood, packing the Su-
preme Court, dictating election rules to
states, ramming through legislation with
zero opposition input or support, etc.
Under the intoxicating influence of
what I’ve termed “the three meta-errors”
of progressivism (faith in government
competence, belief in human willpower,
and the tyranny of good intentions), the
left feels perfectly justified in arrogating
GARFIELD
GINGER MEGGS
BIG NATE
DRABBLE
FRANK AND ERNEST
THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
totalitarian powers to themselves. They
may call it “democratic socialism,” but
it’s anything but democratic.
Like Marx, Lenin, and other past
socialist revolutionaries, today’s left
believes that the end justifies the means.
They seem to have convinced themselves
that by dictating a radical top-down
central plan on the American people, the
result will be a bright, utopian future.
Don’t hold your breath.
If you want to find the utopia that the
left desires, go to Washington, D.C., take
a hard left, and look for it between the
unicorn farm and Atlantis. No radi-
cal social plan animated by hatred for
people and based on mutilations of truth
can possibly bless the human race. If you
need to see it in black and white, check
out “The Black Book of Communism”—
communism being the end of the road
that Marx said starts with democracy
and passes through socialism.
The human race has suffered enough
from the socialist/communist virus.
To advocate socialism today can only
be explained by a rejection of reason
and an adherence to a secular faith that
elevates hope over experience. The fa-
natical adherents of this quasi-religious
dogma, having judged American society
guilty of cardinal sins, have condemned
us to a state-imposed hell that’s becom-
ing increasingly totalitarian by the day.
The good news is: We Americans aren’t
guilty of the sins with which the left has
charged us. There is, then, no justification
for condemnation and no need for the
totalitarian agenda that they’re pushing.
As has ever been the case, America and
Americans will flourish if we remain free of
dictatorial government plans and controls.
Mark Hendrickson, an economist,
recently retired from the faculty of Grove
City College, where he remains a fellow
for economic and social policy at the
Institute for Faith and Freedom.
 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
SPECIAL SERIES: How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World
The Specter’s Strategies
for Destroying Humanity
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
CHAPTER The specter of communism has been
working for centuries to corrupt and
destroy humanity. It began by crippling
man spiritually, divorcing him from his
divine origins. From here, the specter
has led the peoples of the world to cast
out their millennia-old cultural tradi-
tions that the divine had meticulously
arranged as the proper standards for
human existence.
Bereft of its ancient heritage, the
whole of human society is breaking
down at an unprecedented pace. Mean-
while, the specter’s earthly agents have
exploited this societal havoc to push
their nefarious agendas, masking them
as “liberation” and “progress.”
Over the past 200 years or more, the
specter’s influence has overtaken the
labyrinth of social affairs and historical
development. Its demonic influence
takes myriad and seemingly contra-
dictory forms, from the overt brutality
of communist rule found in the East,
to the piecemeal subversion of West-
ern politics, culture, and mainstream
society.
1. The Corruption of Human Thought
In today’s world, the criteria for dis-
cerning good and evil have been
inverted. Righteousness is cast as
wickedness and vice as compassion.
Sinister concepts are disguised as sci-
ence, and gangster logic is masked as
“social justice.” “Political correctness”
is used to impose thought control, and
the notion of “value neutrality” is used
to render people insensitive to brutal
atrocities.
Man was created by the divine, and
the faithful receive divine protection.
The specter’s first and primary aim,
therefore, is to sever the connection
between man and the divine.
The socialist anthem, “The Interna-
tionale,” claims that there has never
been any Creator. In the 1850s, Ger-
man materialist philosopher Ludwig
Feuerbach said that God was merely a
projection of man’s inner nature. But
humanity’s traditional morality, cul-
ture, society, and reason all come from
the divine. In the tumultuous currents
of history, spiritual faith may be de-
scribed as a strong anchor line keeping
mankind from being lost to the waves.
Atheism lures the arrogant into play-
ing God and attempting to control the
fates of others and society; the leaders
of communist movements are prone to
SPECIAL SERIES
selfdeification. British philosopher Ed-
mund Burke, reflecting on the blood-
shed of the French Revolution, said,
“When men play God, presently they
behave like devils.”
A concept closely linked to atheism
is materialism, which denies the ex-
istence of the soul. Materialism took
root during the Industrial Revolution,
when rapid progress in science, tech-
nology, and production fueled a cult of
empiricism and atheism. People lost
faith in divine miracles and rejected
HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
Charles Darwin Original Artwork:
Engraved by George E Perine, circa 1875.
PUBLIC DOMAIN VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
A portait engraving of Ludwig Feuerbach
from Die Gartenlaube, circa 1872.
divine commandment. The concept of
dialectical materialism is the core tenet
of Marxism and other radical ideolo-
gies. In recent history, the dialectical
theory was first articulated by German
philosopher Georg Hegel as a general
set of principles for logical thought.
Marxism then absorbed select aspects
of Hegel’s work, while exaggerating the
nature of dialectical conflict.
Materialism and
atheism have
established the basis for
a whole host of warped
intellectual pretensions.
The corruption of
philosophy has gone
hand in hand with the
corruption of science.
A cult of ‘scientific
rationality’ has replaced
normal reason with a
type of secular religion
used to repress faith
and deny morality,
reinforcing the atheistic
worldview.
In the hands of the specter, materi-
alism and atheism serve as demonic
weapons used to overthrow man’s
spiritual faith, undermine human
morality, and destroy traditional cul-
ture. Materialism and atheism have
established the basis for a whole host
of warped intellectual pretensions.
The corruption of philosophy has gone
hand in hand with the corruption of
science. A cult of “scientific rational-
ity” has replaced normal reason with a
type of secular religion used to repress
faith and deny morality, reinforcing the
atheistic worldview.
The contemporary scientific commu-
nity dismisses all phenomena it can-
not explain or verify using its methods
as superstition and pseudoscience,
or ignores them entirely. Aiming to
dominate academic thought and the
education system, it inundates those
fields with atheistic theories such as
Darwinism.
Darwin’s flawed theory of evolu-
tion has been widely adopted as an
instrument for distancing man from
the divine. It equates man with beasts,
undermining both his self-respect and
his reverence for divine creation. In
the 20th century, the theory took over
the spheres of research and education;
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today, those who believe in creationism
are ridiculed.
Apart from their impact on the natu-
ral sciences, atheism and materialism
spawned many philosophical and ide-
ological trends rooted in the concept
of struggle. The theory of evolution
now not only dominates the study of
biology, but also holds sway in the so-
cial sciences. From Darwin’s original
theory came the pernicious philosophy
of social Darwinism, with its concepts
of “natural selection” and “survival of
the fittest” reducing the community of
nations to a jungle of barbaric struggle.
The demonic philosophy of struggle
also has invaded the field of language.
The definitions and nuances of words
have been twisted to conform with
atheistic and materialist thought. In
British writer George Orwell’s dysto-
pian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four,”
Newspeak is an artificial language
created to reinforce the Party’s control
over the people.
In many ways, Orwell’s visions have
become reality. “Freedom” has been
twisted to mean a state unrestrained
by morality, law, or tradition. Principles
such as “all men are created equal” and
“all men are equal before the law” have
been distorted to mean absolute egali-
tarianism. “Tolerance” has been devi-
ated to mean acceptance of all sorts of
warped thought and conduct. Rational
thinking has been made a tool of nar-
row-minded empirical science. In the
pursuit of equality of outcome, justice
has become “social justice.”
The goal of communism is not to re-
solve problems, but rather, as Chinese
republican leader Chiang Kai-shek
once said, “to expand global contra-
dictions to the greatest extent possible
and cause human struggle to continue
forever.”
This has been observed time and
again throughout modern history.
Communism incites hatred among
the people, creates and escalates con-
flicts, and seizes power through violent
revolution or subterfuge. In every case,
the “liberation” promised by the revo-
lutionaries results in brainwashing,
killing, and tyranny.
2. The Subversion of Traditional
Culture
Mankind’s orthodox culture was im-
parted by the divine. In addition to
maintaining the normal functioning
of human society, the most impor-
tant role of divinely inspired culture
is to provide a means for humanity to
understand the divine law taught in
the final epoch and to be saved from
elimination.
Divinely inspired culture provides for
strong moral protection against evil.
The specter of communism thus aims
to destroy human culture by turning
people against their own traditions.
The spread of atheism and materi-
alism weakened the religious roots of
civilization, giving rise to new ideologi-
cal movements grounded in struggle.
In secular society, the specter’s rep-
resentatives undermined traditional
education, created degenerate modern
art, promoted sexual promiscuity and
pornography, and popularized drug
use. The sinful and the revolting are
now glorified as liberating and expres-
sive.
For thousands of years, traditional
education played a key role in develop-
ing and passing on mankind’s exqui-
site culture. Students learned to work
diligently to master professional, artis-
tic, or academic skills, and to be good
people and citizens.
See next edition for the next
installment.
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
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organization dedicated to seek-
ing the truth through insightful
and independent journalism.
Standing outside of politi-
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profit, our starting point and our
goal is to create a media for the
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A16 | OPINION
Israelis Should Take the
Lessons of War to Heart
MICHAEL WALSH
So the Israelis have once
again let themselves and
much of the rest of the
world down by call-
ing a halt to their latest
skirmish with the “Pales-
tinians” of Hamas, to whom
they unwisely transferred control of the
Gaza Strip in 2005.
The recent round of rocket-launching
and retaliatory air strikes accomplished
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“Extremely well “The Truth, as horrifying as it is,
researched and true.” shall set us free. This should be
on this country’s academia’s
list of required reading.”
HOW THE
SPECTER OF COMMUNISM
IS RULING OUR WORLD
The specter of communism did not
disappear with the disintegration of the
Communist Party in Eastern Europe
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nothing strategic, but merely kicked
the can of resolution down the road yet
again, in the vain hopes that the elusive
“peace process” might someday resolve
the conflict.
There’s only one resolution to this fight,
however, and that’s total victory for one
side or the other. And that’ll be the side
that wants it more, and is willing to do
whatever it takes to achieve that end.
Of course, this ruthless bellicosity of-
fends the modern sensibility that victory
is looked upon as rude and victimhood
NOW
BIGGER SIZE,
EASIER TO READ
FORMAT
MAHMUD HAMS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
A ball of fire erupts
from Jala Tower
after an Israeli air-
strike, in the Hamas-
controlled Gaza City,
on May 15, 2020.
is prized as “moral authority.” American
foreign-policy objectives, even prior to
the end of the Cold War, have included
a balance of power in which nobody
loses, everybody wins, and all must have
prizes.
Such a philosophy has kept the striped-
pants set at the State Department in
expense account travel and meals for 75
years, but it hasn’t done anything to sort
out the underlying, intractable political
and historical problems, nor has it contrib-
uted to the sum total of human happiness.
Diplomacy, it’s said, is war by other
means. But unconditional-surrender
makes diplomacy irrelevant, which is why
diplomats are so dead set against solutions.
So let’s start with this proposition:
What happened in Gaza was not “terror-
ism”—as far too many have been calling
it—but war. War is an ugly word for an
ugly thing, but one that’s dispositive in
the course of human events. Generals
as disparate as Napoleon and William T.
Sherman instinctively understood—and
said so—that the best war is violent,
bloody, and as short as possible.
No lasting peace was ever won at the
bargaining table; it was merely ratified
after the war was over, as it was at the
Congress of Vienna after the final defeat
of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. The war
between the Israelis and the Palestin-
ians will be over when one side has either
annihilated the other, or stripped it of its
capacity to make war.
Too much of the commentary on the
pro-Israel side has relied on the notion
that the Jews have an inviolable, perma-
nent claim to the Holy Land. They don’t.
The ancient Hebrews took it in battle
from the Canaanites, then lost it to a
succession of conquerors, including the
Greeks, Romans, Persians, Arabs, Turks,
Egyptian Muslims, Byzantines, Frankish
Christians, and the Ottoman Empire, just
to name a few. In the matter of nation-
states, possession is ten-tenths of the
law, and no amount of Bible stories can
change that.
Which is why Israel needs to defend
and even expand its turf. Israel’s pre-1967
borders were essentially indefensible,
but the fledgling nation held on to most
of its gains during the Six-Day War, and
added even more after the 1973 Yom
Kippur War. By any historical standard,
the Israelis have the right to hold on to
conquered territory for as long as they
can maintain it, and no appeals of “in-
ternational law” can make them return
it—except by force of arms.
Countries that contract, however, are on
their way out. The Roman Empire started
to shrink with Hadrian, who succeeded
Trajan in 117 AD and promptly started
pulling back from his predecessor’s ex-
pansion of Roman territory to its farthest
limits. Three centuries later, Rome fell. In
the east, the Byzantine Empire managed
to hold on for another 1,000 years, gradu-
ally ceding territory to the Turks and oth-
ers until its capital of Constantinople was
finally captured by the sultan Mehmet II
in 1453. Russia today is just a shell of the
THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
former Soviet Union.
In addition to military prowess, a
key element in the survival of nations
is birthrates, something that does not
bode well for Western civilization at the
moment. Were it not for the fecundity of
its women, the Roman Republic might
not have withstood three successive and
devastating defeats by Hannibal during
the Second Punic War. The Romans lost
upward of 50,000 men on a single day at
Cannae, but replacements were already
in Roman wombs by the time the few
survivors struggled home. Within less
than a generation, Hannibal and his
army were expelled from Italy.
Britain wasn’t so lucky; the British
Empire, and with it, the Pax Britannica of
the Victorian and Edwardian eras post-
Napoleon, was fatally wounded during
World War I, in which roughly 57,000
men were killed, wounded, or missing in
action on the first day of the Battle of the
Somme, which took place on July 1, 1916,
alone. Britain’s best, brightest, and fittest
from across the United Kingdom and
elsewhere were the first to volunteer to
fight for king and country, and those the
Great War didn’t kill or incapacitate, suf-
fered that fate in the Second World War.
Last year, the U.S. birth rate fell by 4
percent from 2019, to 55.8 births per
1,000 women. It’s been steadily declining
for years, and not even immigration—le-
gal or otherwise—can take up the slack.
The American armed forces are already
having a hard enough time finding
physically able young people to fill its
ranks and, with the increasing numbers
of women joining up instead of having
babies, are being forced to lower their
physical standards overall.
This raises the question: Could the
United States win a war with, say, China?
The Chinese are having their own prob-
lems finding fit young men. Earlier this
year, the government complained that its
youth are “too effeminate” to fight, but
China seems the likeliest opponent at
this point should shooting start over Tai-
wan. And then what? Could the United
States hang onto its possessions in the
Pacific? Can the new “woke” Army and
Navy even project overwhelming force
anymore?
It’s time for us to recall that
weakness is not strength and
that guilt about the past is not
conducive to a bright future.
As I wrote in my current bestseller
“Last Stands: Why Men Fight When All
Is Lost,” war is the most elemental of hu-
man activities—indeed, mankind’s natu-
ral state. And no matter how sophisti-
cated modern weaponry may get, unless
and until a war is fought exclusively with
nuclear weapons, the ancient masculine
virtues of courage, duty, honor, and yes,
ferocity are always going to come into
play. Because when and if the apocalypse
comes, what will be more prized than
literal toxic masculinity?
Part of fighting is the resolve to get the
war over with as quickly and definitively
as possible. “If you make war, wage it
with energy and severity,” said Napoleon
to one of his generals in 1799. “It is the
only means of making it shorter and con-
sequently less deplorable for mankind.”
This is a lesson the Israelis should take
to heart if their country is to survive.
“Never again” is the national motto, and
it’s time an increasingly anti-Semitic world
remembered that. As for the Americans—
tied down for 20 years in perhaps the
stupidest war in its history in Afghanistan,
a place of no strategic interest to the na-
tion—it’s time for us to recall that weak-
ness is not strength and that guilt about
the past is not conducive to a bright future.
When you have difficulty defeating a
rabble of goatherds for lack of willpow-
er—and your last total victory came in
1945—it’s time to sack your officer corps,
empty out the Pentagon, get women off
the front lines, bring back the male-only
draft, train warriors and not guidance
counselors, and elect an administration
that understands the nature—and, more
importantly, the purpose—of warfare.
Michael Walsh is the editor of The-Pipe-
line.org and the author of “The Devil’s
Pleasure Palace” and “The Fiery Angel,”
both published by Encounter Books. His
latest book, “Last Stands,” a cultural study
of military history from the Greeks to the
Korean War, was recently published.
 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
Why Did I Renounce My Chinese
Communist Party Membership?
WANG YOUQUN
I was once a member of the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP), serving as one
of the speechwriters for Wei Jianxing, a
former member of the Politburo Stand-
ing Committee and the secretary of
the Central Commission for Discipline
Inspection until November 2002.
In November 2004, The Epoch Times
published an editorial series “Nine Com-
mentaries on the Communist Party” that
covered the CCP from theory to practice—
from history to reality—stripping out all of
its guises and exposing its evil nature to the
world. Since then, there has been a wave of
withdrawals from the CCP and its affili-
ated organizations, such as the Commu-
nist Youth League of China and the Young
Pioneers of China, around the globe.
At that time, I used a pseudonym to
post my statement of resignation from the
Party on the Epoch Times website. Why
did I quit the CCP? I’ll briefly talk about
my views.
Let me start with my initial motivation
to join the CCP. I joined in early 1994,
back when I was a doctoral candidate in
the Department of International Politics
at Renmin University of China.
Some graduates were assigned to work in
the CCP’s central organizations after get-
ting their doctorates. Ni Liya was assigned
to work in the Policy Research Office of
the CCP’s Central Committee and once
served as the director of the Cultural Bu-
reau of the Central Policy Research Office.
Yu Hongjun was assigned to work in the
International Department of the Central
Committee and once served as the deputy
minister. Xue Gang was assigned to the
headquarters of the General Staff of the
Central Military Commission and once
served as a military attaché abroad.
I too wanted to work in a central agency
after completing my doctorate. Neverthe-
less, the CCP has an unwritten rule that
whoever works in the central agency must
be a Party member. I joined the CCP pri-
marily because it was a job requirement.
So, why did I quit the CCP? It’s a long
story. I’ll try to focus on my understand-
ing of the CCP.
The CCP didn’t naturally grow on Chi-
nese soil. It was built in 1921 under the
control of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union, with one of its main mis-
sions being to defend the Soviet Union.
The CCP and the Chinese nation don’t
share a common ancestor. Communism
didn’t originate from the 5,000-year-tradi-
tional Chinese culture, but from the “Com-
munist Manifesto” by Karl Marx in 1848,
with the core ideology of “deceit, malice,
and struggle.” There’s even a well-known
saying among CCP cadres that when they
die, they’ll meet Marx in “his place”—hell.
This year marks the 100th anniversary
of the founding of the CCP. In its first 28
years, the CCP mainly did one thing:
unscrupulously subvert China’s legiti-
mate government, the Republic of China.
In the following 72 years, it has done one
major thing: unscrupulously retain its
totalitarian rule of mainland China.
The CCP Cares Not at All About China
On Dec. 9, 1999, in Beijing, CCP leader
Jiang Zemin and Russian President Boris
Yeltsin signed a narrative protocol on the
boundary between China and Russia,
which recognized the string of unequal
treaties signed between the corrupt late
Qing government and the Tsarist govern-
ment. The Protocol unconditionally gave
Russia the territory of more than 1 mil-
lion square kilometers of northeast China
occupied by Russia.
To Jiang’s traitorous behavior, no one—
none of the members of the Party hierar-
chy leaderships from local authorities to
central authorities—raised objections.
The CCP Cares Not at All
About the Chinese
The CCP has been in power for 72 years
and launched dozens of bloody and
NTDTV
Children were among the many who suffered
from the failed Great Leap Forward and subse-
quent famine.
RAVEENDRAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
brutal political campaigns during that
time. For example, in 1958, Mao Zedong
launched the Great Leap Forward. This
ultra-left policy caused a great famine on
a scale previously unseen in Chinese his-
tory—or even in the history of mankind.
In 1996, Chen Yizi, a member of the
think tank of former General Secretary
Zhao Ziyang, estimated that the number
of excess deaths ranged from 43 mil-
lion to 46 million, based on confidential
documents kept within the Party.
According to a veteran cadre’s in-
terview, the second national census
led by Yang Shangkun in 1964—with
Shangkun then serving as director of the
General Office of the Central Commit-
tee—concluded that the actual number
of peasants who starved to death in the
three-year famine was 96 million. This
information was held in a confidential
file by the Ministry of Public Security.
When Jiang Zemin was in power, he
launched a frenzied persecution of Falun
Gong, amid which the most heinous
atrocity has been the large-scale harvest-
ing of organs from Falun Gong practitio-
ners. On June 22, 2016, Canadian human
rights lawyers David Matas and David
Kilgour, as well as American journalist
Ethan Gutmann, jointly prepared the
report “Bloody Harvest/The Slaughter,
an Update,” in which they estimated that
the number of organ transplants carried
out in China was somewhere between
60,000 to 100,000 annually. The total
number of transplants may have been as
high as 1.5 million for the period be-
tween 2000 to 2016. And the main source
of these organs would have been Falun
Gong practitioners.
The CCP Cares Not at All
for Chinese Culture
Traditional Chinese culture is regarded
as a divinely inspired culture. The athe-
istic CCP prohibits the Chinese from
holding any beliefs beyond those of the
Party. It deifies itself and preaches the
Party’s supremacy. Under the CCP’s rule,
the army, businesses, the media, aca-
demia, and even religions should only
follow the CCP’s evil.
The CCP has distorted all the exist-
ing religions inside China today. Shi
Yinshun, vice chairman of the Buddhist
Association of China said, “The CCP is
a living Buddha and Bodhisattva, and
the report of the 19th National Congress
of the Communist Party of China is the
contemporary Buddhist scriptures of
China.” His statement was imbued with
the communist faith and publicly blas-
phemed against Buddhas and Dharma.
Those who are aware of my situation
may ask: You were expelled from the
CCP. That being the case, why did you
publicly declare your withdrawal from
the Party afterward?
I was indeed expelled from the Party.
On July 20, 1999, the day that CCP dicta-
tor Jiang launched the persecution of
OPINION | A17
SAMIRA BOUAOU/THE EPOCH TIMES
and the people, and harms no one.” I was
telling the truth about Falun Gong.
The CCP expelled a member from the
Party when the member spoke the truth
to the Party’s general secretary. I would
like to ask: Is this Party righteous or evil?
I started practicing Falun Gong on May
3, 1995. As of July 20, 1999, I had been
practicing Falun Gong for more than four
years. Falun Gong is a Buddhist practice
rooted in ancient Chinese traditions. Its
core philosophy is “truthfulness, compas-
sion, tolerance,” and it requires a cultivator
to be a good person in strict accordance
with “truthfulness, compassion, toler-
ance” wherever they are. At home, one
should be a good father, husband, and son.
In society, one should be a good citizen,
and in the workplace, a good employee.
By that time, my practice had brought
out the best in me in all aspects of my life.
It was then that the CCP treated me as a
“bad person,” kicking me out of the Party.
I would like to ask: Is this Party righteous
Falun Gong practitioners take or evil?
part in a parade in New York on
April 18, 2021, to commemorate
Why Did I Publicly Denounce the Party?
the 22nd anniversary of the April
25th peaceful appeal by 10,000 Expelling me from the Party is a punish-
Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing. ment by the CCP, but not a break from it.
When I joined the CCP, I vowed with my
life to fight for the communism advocat-
ed by Marx. As the Chinese saying goes,
“God is always watching what you are
Tibetan monks hold placards doing.” God must have seen when I made
during a protest rally in New that vow.
Delhi, India, on Jan. 31, 2013. I publicly declared that I renounced
Party membership to show God that I
had severed my ties with the atheistic
Falun Gong, I was quarantined for in- CCP and returned to my belief in God.
vestigation. Six days later, I was expelled Only those who truly believe in God
from the Party. can be blessed and protected by God.
The CCP expelled me from the party
not because I made a mistake at work, not Wang Youqun graduated with a Juris
because I made a financial mistake, not Doctor from the Renmin University of
because I made a mistake in my personal China. He once worked as a copywriter
relationships, but simply because I wrote for Wei Jianxing (1931–2015), a member
Jiang a letter on May 7, 1999. In the letter, I of the CCP’s Politburo Standing Commit-
said that “Falun Dafa benefits the country tee from 1997 to 2002.
Behind the
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TRUTH AND TRADITION
A18 | OPINION
(Left) Paramilitary policemen patrol in front of the People's Bank of China, the central bank of China, in Beijing on July 8, 2015. (Right) A bitcoin mining farm in Saint Hyacinthe, Canada, on March 19, 2018.
CCP Cracks Down on Virtual Currency
to Prevent Money From Fleeing Country
ALEXANDER LIAO
For many years, the Chinese Com-
munist Party (CCP) has acquiesced to
digital currency operations in China.
But in 2018, it began to restrict Bitcoin
transactions while still secretly encour-
aging Bitcoin mining. However, now
that large amounts of funds are fleeing
the country through virtual currencies,
Chinese authorities seem determined to
crack down on it.
Cryptocurrencies represented by
Bitcoin have attracted increasing atten-
tion in recent years due to their security,
privacy, and decentralization. Data
show that the unit price of Bitcoin has
exceeded $60,000, although as of May 18,
the unit price slipped to $43,300, with a
market cap of $811 billion. As the price
of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies
rises, the world’s resources invested in
the virtual currency mining industry
have also increased significantly.
The CCP doesn’t recognize virtual
currencies and has actively taken mea-
sures to prohibit transactions via digital
currency. Instead, it introduced a digital
yuan controlled by the Chinese regime.
Virtual currencies such as Bitcoin,
because of their security and privacy ad-
vantages, have become a major concern
for the CCP. The CCP operates on cen-
tralized control.
Paradoxically, although the Chinese
Communist Party prohibits the trading
of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, it
doesn’t prohibit the mining of cryptocur-
rencies.
Chinese miners account for the vast
majority of the global Bitcoin industry. In
a study done by Statista in 2020, China
conducts 65 percent of the world’s bitcoin
mining. The United States is a distant
second, at only 7.24 percent.
Mining refers to solving complex math
problems in exchange for a certain
number of Bitcoins. Successful mining
introduces new Bitcoins into circulation
and allows transactions to process se-
curely. According to Nasdaq, the Bitcoin
mining industry brought in an average of
$56 million per day in April.
In the mining process, the operation
of computers not only consumes a lot
of electricity, but operators also need
to continuously update and develop
supercomputers for mining to increase
computing power. At present, a variety
of application-specific integrated circuit
mining machines are continuously being
introduced on the market.
The formula for calculating the benefit
of mining is: the value of the obtained
cryptocurrency minus (the electricity
used + the cost of the mining machine).
Chinese miners of virtual currency
are mainly concentrated in western
China, in areas such as Mongolia and
Xinjiang. That’s because there are many
small and medium-sized hydropower
stations in these areas, and because of
the lack of matching power distribu-
tion equipment, a lot of hydropower
is wasted, especially in summer when
flash floods erupt and hydropower sta-
tions readily send electricity to people
for free.
Electricity is cheap there due to moun-
tainous terrain and low temperatures.
As a result, large numbers of small and
medium miners settled in the area for
their Bitcoin mining operations. Even
the bosses of hydropower plants become
GREG BAKER/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
miners themselves; while they earn
green energy subsidies from the govern-
ment, they also profit off mining with
cheap electricity.
Large mines have huge investments,
usually concentrated in Inner Mongolia
and Xinjiang, where electricity is cheap
and the climate is cold enough.
Not only does China dominate digi-
tal currency mining globally, but their
mining machine manufacturing is also
developing rapidly. Two Bitcoin mining
giants, Canaan Technology and Yibang
International, were listed on the U.S.
stock market in 2019 and 2020.
In other words, the majority of Bit-
coin mining occurs in China. Globally,
the most electricity used for Bitcoin is
in China, the most machines used for
mining are in China, the most advanced
mining machines are made in China,
and the largest number of bitcoins are
controlled in China.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin transactions are
illegal in China.
At the CCP National People’s Congress
in March, the CCP emphasized pro-
posals to create new advantages in the
digital economy and actively participate
in the formulation of international rules
and digital technology standards such
as data security, digital currency, and
digital taxes.
The CCP hopes that the digital econo-
my, including blockchain, can contrib-
ute to China’s GDP and turn the CCP
into a “global leader.” That’s why the CCP
doesn’t prohibit mining.
Blockchain technology, which
originated from Bitcoin, manages and
protects data through encryption and
decentralization.
The CCP vigorously develops block-
chain technology and wants to control
speech in future global digital technol-
ogy. Yet the original concept of decen-
tralization of blockchain technology
runs contrary to the CCP’s totalitarian
characteristics. Therefore, the CCP is
beginning to fully suppress other digital
currencies.
The majority of Bitcoin mining
occurs in China. Globally,
the most electricity used for
Bitcoin is in China, the most
machines used for mining are
in China, the most advanced
mining machines are made in
China, and the largest number
of bitcoins are controlled in
China. Meanwhile, Bitcoin
transactions are illegal in China.
The CCP authorities have recently
been cracking down. The Chinese
regime has reviewed several major
commercial banks and online financial
platforms owned by technology gi-
ants such as Alibaba and Tencent. The
supervision of cryptocurrencies has
also become stricter, mainly to pre-
vent domestic funds from laundering
or transferring huge amounts of funds
through cryptocurrencies.
On April 22, China CITIC Bank issued
an announcement stating that in order
to prevent money laundering risks, all
accounts at the bank used for transac-
tions such as Bitcoin and Litecoin will
be canceled.
The Central Bank of the Communist
Party of China has fined China CITIC
Bank $4.5 million this year over ineffec-
tive anti-money laundering efforts relat-
ed to cryptocurrency. Fourteen relevant
persons in charge were also punished.
As of April 12, the Central Bank of the
Communist Party of China had fined
417 financial institutions and persons
in charge this year a total of $97 mil-
lion, mostly related to money launder-
ing and cross-border transfers through
cryptocurrency.
As early as December 2013, the Central
Bank of the Communist Party of China
and five other ministries and commis-
sions jointly issued a notice that barred
financial institutions and payment
institutions from Bitcoin-related busi-
nesses. In April 2014, 13 banks including
China’s five major banks (Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural
Bank of China, Bank of China, China
Construction Bank, and Bank of Com-
munications) also announced that their
accounts would be prohibited from being
used for Bitcoin and Litecoin.
Stopping Money Transfers Overseas
Chinese media have repeatedly re-
ported that cryptocurrencies are used by
individuals and companies to transfer
huge assets and conduct money launder-
ing. On May 1, cryptocurrency was listed
as one of the illegal fundraising methods
the CCP intends to stop inside of China.
The high liquidity of cryptocurrencies
such as Bitcoin cannot even match the
stock market. According to data from
Liang Xinjun, one of the founders of
Fosun Group, in April 2020, the market
value of Bitcoin was only $158.9 billion,
which is 3.5 percent of the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange’s value. However, the
annual transaction volume of Bitcoin
is three times the trading volume of the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The high liquidity of cryptocurrency
provides very convenient conditions
for the transnational transfer of huge
amounts of funds.
According to the 2020 Annual Virtual
Currency Anti-Money Laundering re-
port of the blockchain security com-
pany PeckShield, the value of China’s
unregulated cross-border mobile vir-
tual currency (cryptocurrency) reached
$17.5 billion last year, an increase of 51
percent from $11.4 billion in 2019. That
figure is growing rapidly.
Lu Media’s report confirmed that
Chinese domestic assets have been
transferred overseas through virtual
currencies, and illegal funds have been
laundered through virtual currencies.
However, despite the strict control of
CCP authorities, the number of cryp-
tocurrency transactions has recently
increased.
According to PeckShield’s calculation
of the flow of funds, before the official
launch of strict management from
January to October 2020, the number of
bitcoins flowing from China’s domestic
virtual currency exchanges to foreign
countries each month was between
89,400 and 166,900. However, in No-
vember and December last year after
the start of the strict control by the CCP
regime, the number of bitcoins flowing
abroad increased to 231,700 and 254,100
THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
LARS HAGBERG/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
respectively, an increase of nearly 40
percent from the previous peak.
If calculated on the basis of the unit
price of Bitcoin of $50,000, in November
and December last year, the funds flow-
ing from China in the form of Bitcoin
overseas were $10.58 billion and $12.7
billion, respectively.
Within the money laundering process,
a “run sub-platform” was created. This
entails using the user’s WeChat and
Alipay’s collection code or bank card
to collect payments for people seeking
to send capital outside of China, there-
by earning a commission from taking
on the transaction. Through the use
of virtual currency as the settlement
method, cross-border money launder-
ing can be carried out in secret.
The CCP vigorously develops
blockchain technology and
wants to control speech in
future global digital technology.
Yet the original concept of
decentralization of blockchain
technology runs contrary to the
CCP’s totalitarian characteristics.
In May 2020, a massive money-
laundering scheme was investigated in
Hangzhou, China. Authorities found
the operation had laundered more than
$7 billion, collecting money through
AliPay, WeChat Pay, and bank ac-
counts. During its operations, $4.6 bil-
lion was sent overseas.
There are many countries in the
world that suppress virtual currencies,
including the United States, the United
Kingdom, Switzerland, and India.
Guo Wengui, the exiled Chinese bil-
lionaire, said in a video he posted on
his YouTube channel on May 7 that
he believes those countries are afraid
virtual currencies will challenge their
legal sovereign credit currency status.
But he believes the CCP’s fears are dif-
ferent. The CCP is afraid that Chinese
money will flee overseas.
In his opinion, increased riches in
mainland China correlate with in-
creased insecurities and threats. He
says the rich in China are always look-
ing for ways to move their assets abroad
safely and secretly. For these purposes,
virtual currency is best.
I think his analysis makes sense.
Virtual currencies such as Bitcoin are
essentially decentralized currencies,
likened to gold. Modern sovereign cur-
rencies are credit currencies that can
be created by the government. This is
the key to digital currencies.
The digital yuan developed by the
CCP uses blockchain while retaining all
the shortcomings of central control and
credit currency. Most Western financial
experts are not optimistic about the
digital yuan.
Alexander Liao is a columnist and
journalist in research on international
affairs in the United States, China, and
Southeast Asia. He has published a large
number of reports, commentaries, and
video programs in newspapers and Chi-
nese financial magazines in the United
States and Hong Kong. 
 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 OPINION | A19
COURTESY OF ARLEN AND CINDY FOSTER

Federal Overreach:
The Nation’s Most
Expensive Mud Puddle
DIANE DIMOND
Just thought you might like to
know what the federal govern-
ment is doing on your behalf,
how the feds are spending your
tax dollars on a crazy-sounding
lawsuit.
The dispute pits a South Dakota
farm family, the Fosters, against the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. The fight is
over a mud puddle. Yep, you read that
right. Said mud puddle is located smack
in the middle of prime farmland.
The USDA has decreed that the
family may not fill in the muddy patch
to plant more crops because it consid-
ers the 0.08 acre of land to be federally
protected under the 1985 Swampbuster
Act, which protects wetlands. No mat-
ter that the Fosters’ puddle isn’t con-
nected to any waterway and isn’t near
any other officially designated wetlands
property. According to their lawyer,
if the family dares to tamper with the
puddle, they will lose access to crop
insurance and other federal programs
designed to help American farmers
survive.
Amazing, right? Now, consider that this
dispute has been going on since 2004!
Imagine how many of your tax dollars
the USDA has spent over the years argu-
ing about mud. Imagine how much the
family has had to spend commissioning
surveys and filing appeals.
The Fosters, obviously from hearty
stock, have refused to give in to the
absurdity of it all. The family’s requests
for reconsideration have been rejected by
the USDA, as was their appeal in 2016 to
the U.S. Supreme Court. But the Fosters
continue to believe the federal govern-
ment should not dictate how a landown-
er uses their land. And they certainly
A mud puddle located on
the farm of Arlen and Cindy
Foster in Miner County,
S.D., on March 25, 2021.
ought not to be punished with the threat
of withholding federal programs other
farmers get.
At a time when family farms are being
gobbled up by Big Agriculture, you’d
think Uncle Sam would see the value
that the Fosters’ land (a total of some
1,300 acres) brings to both them and the
surrounding community.
By any measure, Arlen and Cindy
Foster have been good stewards to the
property, working it with their daughter,
son-in-law, and six grandchildren. They
are third-generation farmers who raise
cattle, corn, soybeans, and hay. They
practice no-till farming and have a long
history of conservation efforts dating
back to 1900, when Arlen’s grandfather,
Francis Foster, bought the land with a
loan of $1,000.
In 1938, as the Dust Bowl era saw farms
across the country decimated, Grandpa
Francis planted stands of trees to prevent
erosion. Today, the Fosters’ groves of
trees are large and trap snow during the
severe South Dakota winters. The spring
These days, many melt creates a stream of water that seeps
to the lowland, thus creating the contro-
Americans seem to versial mud puddle.
embrace the idea of But darn it, it’s their mud puddle to do
more government. with as they please, they believe. And that
includes filling it in and planting more
... But remember corn if they so choose. But they can’t.
what the Fosters Undaunted, the Fosters recently filed a
have been dealing new federal lawsuit with the U.S. District
Court in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In a
with at the hands nutshell, it declares that the government
of unchecked feds. has overstepped its commerce powers
and violated the Fosters’ constitutional
rights. The suit was filed with assistance
from the Pacific Legal Foundation, a
nonprofit, pro bono group that fights
against government overreach and
abuse.
I spoke with the foundation’s lead at-
torney, Tony Francois.
“Even if you’re an ardent environmen-
talist, I defy you to look at this puddle
and say it’s worth the money the feds
have and will spend,” he told me.
Francois said it’s clear that the USDA
made a bad decision way back when and
simply can’t admit it.
“This case really is about whether Con-
gress has the power to regulate that mud
puddle. If they do, there is no constitu-
tional limit on what they can do,” he said.
“The fact that dirt gets wet, so, therefore,
they can ignore the U.S. Constitution?
Absurd!”
The USDA says it doesn’t comment on
pending litigation, so I can’t report to you
that side of the story.
These days, many Americans seem to
embrace the idea of more government.
The idea that dear old Uncle Sam will
take care of us with trillions in spending
seems attractive. But remember what
the Fosters have been dealing with at the
hands of unchecked feds. Realize that
more federal money means more control
over your everyday lives.
Diane Dimond is an author and investiga-
tive journalist. Her latest book is “Thinking
Outside the Crime and Justice Box.”

Inflation, Money, and Supply Bottlenecks

DANIEL LACALLE
One of the arguments most
used by central banks
regarding the increase
in inflation is that it’s
because of bottlenecks
and that the recovery in
demand has created ten-
sions in the supply chain. However, the
evidence shows us that most commodi-
ties have risen in tandem in an environ-
ment of a wide level of spare capacity and
even overcapacity.
If we analyze the utilization ratio of
industrial and manufacturing produc-
tive capacity, we see that countries such
as Russia at 61 percent or India at 66
percent are at a clear level of structural
overcapacity and a utilization of produc-
tive capacity that still remains several
points lower than that of February 2020.
In China, it’s 77 percent, still far from the
78 percent pre-pandemic level.
In fact, if we analyze the main G-20
countries and the largest industrial
and commodity suppliers in the world,
we see that none of them have levels of
utilization of productive capacity higher
than 85 percent. There’s ample available
capacity all over the world.
Inflation isn’t a transport chain problem
either. The excess capacity in the ship-
ping and transport sector is well docu-
mented, and in 2020, new capacity was
added in both freight and air transport.
Ships delivered in 2020 were expected to
add 1.2 million 20-foot equivalent units
(TEUs) of capacity, with 569,000 TEUs of
capacity on ultra-large container vessels,
according to Drewry, a shipping consult-
ing firm. International Air Transport
Association chief economist Brian Pearce
also warned that the problem of capacity
was likely to increase in 2020.
One of the important side effects of the
chain of monetary stimuli, low-interest
rates, and fiscal stimulus programs is the
increase in the number of zombie compa-
nies, a term used to describe those compa-
nies that can’t cover their debt interest bills
with operating profits. The Bank for Inter-
national Settlements (BIS) has shown this
phenomenon in several empirical studies.
Ryan Banerjee, senior economist at the BIS,
identified the constant policy of lowering
rates as a key factor in understanding the
exponential increase in zombie companies.
The constant refinancing of debt from
zombie companies also leads to the per-
petuation of overcapacity, because a key
process for economic progress, such as
creative destruction, is eliminated or lim-
ited. Low-interest rates and high liquidity
have perpetuated or increased global
installed excess capacity in aluminum,
iron ore, oil, natural gas, soybeans, and
many other commodities.
Why does inflation rise if overcapac-
ity is perpetuated and there’s enough
PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
A pressman
inspects
equipment for
printing serial
numbers on
$20 bills at the
U.S. Bureau of
Engraving in
Washington, in
this file photo.
transport capacity?
We’ve forgotten the most important fac-
tor, the monetary one—or at least some
central banks want to make us forget it.
“Inflation is always and everywhere a
monetary phenomenon,” explained Milton
Friedman many decades ago. More supply
of money is directed toward scarce assets,
be it real estate or raw materials, and the
purchasing power of money goes down.
Why did they tell us that there was “no
inflation” before COVID-19 if money sup-
ply also increased massively?
The big difference between 2020 and the
past years is that, previously, the Federal
Reserve or the European Central Bank
increased money supply at or below the
levels of demand for money, measured as
demand for credit and use of currency.
For example, the increase in the money
supply of the United States was close to 6
percent with a global demand for dollars
that grew between 7 and 9 percent. In
fact, the world maintains a dollar short-
age of about $17 trillion, according to Luke
Gromen of Forest for the Trees. This keeps
the dollar or euro relatively stable and a
perception that inflation is low. However,
there were red flags before COVID-19.
There were protests all over the world,
including Europe, against the rising cost
of living. The world’s reserve currencies
export inflation to other countries.
What Happened in 2020?
For the first time in decades, the Federal
Reserve and the main central banks
increased money supply well above de-
mand. The response to the forced shut-
down of activity with massive money-
printing generated an unprecedented
inflationary wave. The economy didn’t
collapse due to lack of liquidity or a credit
crunch, but due to the lockdowns.
The 2020 monetary tsunami launched a
global boomerang effect with three conse-
quences. First, emerging market curren-
cies plummeted against the dollar be-
cause their central banks “copied” the U.S.
policy without the global demand that the
U.S. dollar enjoys. The second effect was a
disproportionate amount of money flow-
ing to risky assets joined by more flows to
take overweight positions in scarce assets.
That excess money made investors move
from being underweight in commodities
to overweight, generating a synchronized
and abrupt rally. The third key factor is
that extraordinary measures typical of a
financial or demand crisis were taken to
mitigate a supply shock, generating an un-
precedented rise in money with no added
credit demand. More money in scarce
assets isn’t a price increase, but a decrease
in the purchasing power of money.
What Is the Risk?
The history of money since the Roman
Empire always tells us the same thing.
First, money is aggressively printed with
the excuse that “there is no inflation.”
When inflation rises, central banks and
governments tell us that it’s “transitory”
or due to “multi-casual” effects. And
when it shoots up, governments present
themselves as the “solution,” imposing
price controls and restrictive measures
on exports. It’s not a theory. All of us who
have lived in the 1970s know it.
That’s why it’s dangerous to pursue con-
glomerate stocks as an inflationary bet. Be-
cause when price controls and government
intervention increases, margins collapse.
The risk of stagflation isn’t small, and the
so-called value stocks aren’t a good bet in
this environment. In stagflation, com-
modities with tight supply dynamics, gold
and silver, high margin sectors, and bonds
of stable currencies support a portfolio.
However, most sectors underperform,
as we saw in the ‘70s, where the S&P 500
generated very weak returns, significantly
below inflation.
So what can prevent history from re-
peating itself?
Only a drastic reaction from central
banks can change it. However, the ques-
tion is, will central banks tighten policy
when government deficits are soaring
and even a small increase in sovereign
yields can generate a debt crisis?
Will they react to what is clearly—as
always—a monetary inflationary process?
Daniel Lacalle, Ph.D., is chief economist at
hedge fund Tressis and author of “Freedom
or Equality,” “Escape from the Central Bank
Trap,” and “Life in the Financial Markets.”
A20 | THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021

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FLASH IN THE PAN SUMMER

A New Way to Use Whey Potato Salad, Minus the Mayo

Make your own cheese, but don’t toss the whey—cook 7 other ways to dress this backyard
it down into a smooth, rich caramel. barbecue favorite.

See B2 See B2

GOOD EATS|RECIPES|DRINKS THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 B1

FOOD
AUDREY LE GOFF OSTANCOV VLADISLAV/SHUTTERSTOCK

The deep persimmon color of fresh salmon is

one of nature’s finest hues.

In Salmon,
the Story
of Alaska
ERIC LUCAS

“Standing dead,” Don Honea tells me.

He laughs—Native humor is very
dry—because he is standing, clearly not
dead, in the dim light of a Yukon River
salmon smokeshack, holding up a five-
foot cottonwood log that is indeed dead.
It’s the only wood they cut to smoke their
Warm,
salmon catch, and the gnarled, musty
slightly sweet
aroma of generations of cottonwood fires
sabayon is a great
seeps from the pores of the smokeshack
dairy-free alternative
timbers and varnishes the tin siding.
to whipped cream
The precision of Honea’s smoke-wood
on top of juicy
prescription reflects not just how deeply
seasonal fruits.
held this tradition is, but how important
salmon is in the vast natural empire
known as Alaska.
But while Honea has a concrete answer
regarding the best wood, he sidesteps a
perennial debate about which salmon is
best. Alaska has five kinds: king, sil-
ver, sockeye, pink, chum; all have their
virtues and fans, and this is their global
homeland.

Simple I believe that salmon

went to places and

Sabayon people followed them

knowing that if salmon
were there, they could
make a life there.
Melanie Brown, fisherman
To make this airy sauce. Light and subtly sweet, it’s a
great dairy-free alternative to whipped
city of Marsala in Sicily. Though reports
vary, the recipe is said to date back to
delicate French cream, perfect for spooning over juicy the 15th century, when it was enjoyed The Honea family has operated a sum-
seasonal fruits. all throughout Northern Italy. The story mer salmon camp on the Yukon, upriver
sauce, all you need goes that it was Catherine de’ Medici’s from the tiny village of Ruby at a spot
chefs who imported zabaione to the called Big Eddy, for generations—maybe
are 3 ingredients, royal court of France, when she mar- for millennia, as Interior Alaska’s Atha-
ried King Henry II and became queen baskan people have been here since time
gentle heat, and a You can use an in 1547. immemorial. Human life has thrived
lot of whisking electric hand mixer, French sabayon traditionally swaps along the salmon-bearing inlets and riv-
the Marsala for a classic white wine— erways of the North Pacific for more than
or go the manual 10 to 15 percent ABV—be it dry, sweet, 10,000 years.
AUDREY LE GOFF or even sparkling, like Champagne. It’s Each summer and fall, the fish return,
route—as long as

I
f you’re looking for a new com-
panion for your summer berries,
search no further than sabayon.
An Italian import adopted by
the French, sabayon is a delicate,
frothy custard, made with just three
ingredients: egg yolks, sugar, and wine.
Rapidly whisked together over a bain-
marie, the mixture transforms into an
you’re prepared for a
workout.
The original Italian zabaione—some-
times spelled zabaglione—is made with
Marsala, a brandy-fortified wine—15
to 20 percent ABV—produced in the
thus slightly less boozy, a little airier,
and subtler in flavor.
In modern France, sabayon can refer
to either a savory or sweet custard. The
savory version, made with white wine,
egg yolks, lemon juice, and a pinch of
salt, is often used as a frothy sauce to
accompany delicate scallops or oysters.
Continued on B4
billions of them, fat and large, from the
ocean and migrate upstream to ancestral
spawning grounds. Brawny and inexora-
ble, the fish match the rivers they swim.
Spinning in the clear amber waters, they
are an evocative sight in their vermilion
and chartreuse spawning coats, nature’s
expressionist canvas.
Continued on B5
 B2 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021

SVITLANA SLOBODIANIUK/SHUTTERSTOCK

FRIED LEMON CHEESE WITH

DULCE DE LECHE SAUCE
The sauce is a fun touch, but hardly necessary. It
adds quite a bit to the cooking time. If you skip the
sauce, your cheese is ready within the hour.
SERVES 4
FOR THE CHEESE
1 gallon whole milk
10 tablespoons lemon or lime juice (or a blend)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons ghee or light vegetable oil
FOR THE CARAMEL SAUCE
2 tablespoons sugar

MAKE THE CHEESE

In a thick-bottomed pot, heat the milk to a boil on
medium-high, stirring often to make sure nothing
sticks. When it starts to foam as it approaches
boiling, turn it off and wait for 10 minutes.
When the milk has cooled that little bit, give it a
stir to get it moving in a vortex, and add the lemon/
lime juice. The result should be immediate, as the
solid white milk breaks apart into cloud-like curds,
suspended in the almost clear, watery whey. Let it
cool for about 20 minutes, and then pour it through
cheesecloth or a nut milk bag and into a pot to
collect the whey.
Tie the corners of the cheese
cloth (or pull the cinch if
using a nut milk bag)
Making curds and whey is the first step in almost any cheese making process. and hang it in a place
where you can catch
FLASH IN THE PAN the drips. After at
least two hours, but

A New Way to Use Whey: as long as overnight,

carefully remove the
cheese.
To fry the cheese,

Make Caramel Sauce carefully unwrap it from

the cheesecloth and slice
it into half-inch slabs or
cubes. Fry them slowly
Freshly
drained curds.
ARI LEVAUX

in the oil on low-medium

ARI LEVAUX
A farmer friend gave me a box of spinach the
other week. It wasn’t long until the novelty
wore off. By then I had added the dark green
foliage to ramen, salad, omelets, sandwiches,
and anywhere else I could think to insert
those protein- and calcium-rich leaves.
We finally killed the box with a large
batch of saag paneer, in which I steamed
and pureed the remaining spinach, along
with some mustard greens, and cooked
them with sauteed onions, garam masala,
and browned chunks of creamy, nutty, salty
homemade cheese. When the spinach ran
out, I kept making this fluffy, lemony cheese.
It’s easy to make and has a flavor that never
gets old, and I feel like I’m only beginning to
explore the possibilities of what to do with
this cheese. Alas, this exploration has been
A warm bowl of curds and whey is not a
bad thing to eat. It’s a little bit sweet, thanks
I just can’t
to the lactose; a little tart, thanks to the cur-
dling agent; and slightly salty, as I add salt
seem to get with the acid. It’s a bit like eating cereal and
off my tuffet milk, because you have two different tex-
tures inhabiting the same bowl. You can
and quit sweeten it, of course, but you can also turn
the meal in a more savory direction. I like to
eating those drink off the whey and stir in a bit of olive
curds and oil and minced garlic, for example, and a
touch more salt.
whey, and it’s I filter the curds from the whey by pouring
cutting into it all through cheesecloth—imagine that,
using cheesecloth to make cheese! When the
my cheese curds and whey are poured through, I tie the
corners of the cheesecloth around the wad
output. of curds and hang it above the whey pot, so
I can capture the stream of draining whey.
You can try to get a second curdling from
heat until browned on at least two sides.
You don’t have to fry it up. Not everyone, after all,
appreciates the subtle taste of the milk left over from
a bowl of Fruit Loops. You can spread that lemony
cheese like whipped cream cheese. You can sweeten it
into a bright, rich dessert, or mix it with chives, olive oil,
and salt for a savory alternative. As for that whey ...
MAKE THE CARAMEL SAUCE
Add the sugar to the whey. On medium heat, simmer
the whey until it cooks down to a thick, brown
sauce, stirring occasionally to monitor any sticking.
Amazingly, it doesn’t seem to want to stick. As
the volume gets close to zero, it will begin to foam,
turning into more of a bubbling gas than liquid. At this
point you can turn it off, at which point the foam will
collapse back into a liquid with the look and thickness
of caramel.
Pour it over the cheese chunks or dip them into it.
ARI LEVAUX

restricted by a certain step in the process that your whey. That’s how they make ricotta
I can’t stop eating. I just can’t seem to get off and other types of “whey cheese.” I’ve been
my tuffet and quit eating those curds and doing something a bit more decadent: slow-
whey, and it’s cutting into my cheese output. ly cooking down the lemon-tinged whey
Making curds and whey is the first step until it develops into a smooth brown cara-
in almost any cheese making process. You mel that’s similar in flavor and makeup to
heat the milk and add some kind of acidic dulce de leche.
agent that causes the milk to curdle. It’s I then pour this lemony caramel sauce
similar to what happens if you add both over pieces of drained cheese, which I have
lemon and honey to a cup of tea with milk, fried to a golden hue, a process that some-
but more palatable. how makes the cheese taste like the milk
When you stir that acid—in my case, lem- leftover from a bowl of Fruit Loops. Together
on juice—into that hot milk, what had been with the caramel sauce, it’s a soft, sweet,
a homogeneous liquid quickly transforms and decadent little treat made from nothing
into a thick, nearly solid curd floating in a but milk, lemon, and salt. And it’s just one
bath of clear, watery whey. Typically the of the many whey cool things you can do
curds are filtered out and drained, which with curds and whey.
makes them more dense. These curds are
the foundation of most cheeses, while the Ari LeVaux writes about food
whey has uses of its own. in Missoula, Mont. Fried cheese with whey caramel.

toasted flavor. It’s sure to have people Sour Cream

Potato Salad, Minus the Mayo guessing what the secret ingredient in
your salad is.
Sour cream and potatoes are a natural pair-
ing (think baked potatoes!). Like yogurt,
sour cream brings creaminess with the ad-
JESSE SZEWCZYK Pesto dition of tang. It can also be used in place of
JOE LINGEMAN/TNS

There are a number of condiments that work
equally well as a potato salad dressing.
It’s hard to beat a classic potato salad made
with creamy mayonnaise. But good news
for the mayo-averse: The winning combina-
tion of potatoes and mayo isn’t where this
backyard barbecue favorite ends.
Good olive oil can be
equally as rich and
flavorful as mayo.
There are a number of condiments that
work equally well as a potato salad dress-
ing—so whether you’re in need of a mayo
substitute or you’re simply in the mood to
bring something different to the party this
year, you’ve got plenty of options.
Tahini
The sesame paste most commonly used
to make hummus not only lends creami-
ness to potato salad, but also adds nutty,
Stir pesto into most things and it will be
better—and that definitely includes potato
salad. Pick up your favorite store-bought
brand to keep things easy on yourself, or
if you have an abundance of basil in your
backyard, make your own.
Buttermilk
A splash of buttermilk is often added to
traditional mayo-based potato salad to
thin out the mayo and offset it’s full fla-
vor with a touch of tang, but it can also be
used on its own if you’re looking for a little
creaminess that’s not overpowering.
Greek Yogurt
If you already have a tub of Greek yogurt
in your refrigerator for your morning gra-
nola routine, you have one of the best
substitutes for mayo ready and waiting.
You can swap in all or some of the mayo
called for in a potato salad recipe with
Greek yogurt. You’ll just want to opt for
full fat to achieve the richest, creami-
est taste (although low-fat can be used
if you prefer).
or in combination with mayonnaise.
Vinaigrette
The simple vinaigrette you use to dress
your green salad every night is also a solid
choice for your potato salad. To get the most
bang out of it, toss it with the potatoes while
they’re still warm, so it can soak into them
and make each bite extra flavorful. Or, go
bold with a vinaigrette made of bacon fat.
Olive Oil
Yes, you can dress your potato salad with
just olive oil. Good olive oil can be equally
as rich and flavorful as mayo. Again, toss
it with the potatoes while still warm to
ensure they’ll absorb it easily, and toss in
extra spices or chopped fresh herbs too.
Jesse Szewczyk is the studio food editor at
TheKitchn.com, a nationally known blog
for people who love food and home cooking.
Submit any comments or questions to
editorial@thekitchn.com. Copyright 2021
Apartment Therapy. Distributed by Tribune
Content Agency, LLC.
 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 B3
ALL PHOTOS BY SHUTTERSTOCK

Festive
Fajitas for
a Party
DIANE ROSSEN WORTHINGTON

Memorial Day signifies the beginning of

summer as well as honoring our soldiers
who lost their lives in battle. It’s a time
when friends and family often gather
together. This year, why not serve these
incredibly tasty fajitas? Memorial Day
weather can be tricky at best. Just to be on
the safe side this year, think about making
this Mexican-style dish from the comfort
of your kitchen.

For a party, you can

easily multiply this recipe
and add a pot of black
beans and some spicy
cooked rice to round out
the menu.
Fajitas were all the rage a few decades
back, when Tex-Mex cooking burst onto
the culinary scene. Fajita comes from a
word meaning “belt,” and some say that
using skirt steak with its unique string-like
texture looks like a belt.
Stir-frying tender beef strips along with
colorful vegetables and Mexican spices is
a quick technique that produces a pretty
fajita filling for warm corn or flour torti-
llas. Make sure to use a high-sided skillet
or wok to help cook the ingredients evenly.
This is a very flexible dish, since you can
serve it rolled in flour tortillas for a quick
family dinner, or open-face on corn torti-
llas for a fun Southwestern-style party. For (Above) Fajitas have
a party, you can easily multiply this recipe been all the rage since
and add a pot of black beans and some Tex-Mex cooking
spicy cooked rice to round out the menu. burst onto the
culinary scene.
Small bowls of this colorful salsa make a
pretty presentation alongside the fajitas. (Left) Serve with
To drink? Don’t forget some ice-cold small bowls of salsa
Mexican beer or fruit margaritas. on the side.
Diane Rossen Worthington is an
authority on new American cooking. She
is the author of 18 cookbooks, including
“Seriously Simple Parties,” and a James
Beard Award-winning radio show host.
You can contact her at SeriouslySimple.
com. Copyright 2021 Diane Rossen
Worthington. Distributed by Tribune
Content Agency, LLC.

BEEF FAJITAS WITH AVOCADO-CORN SALSA AND WARM CORN TORTILLAS

SERVES 4 TO 6
FOR THE SALSA
2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and finely
diced
1/2 cup corn kernels (fresh or frozen and
defrosted)
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 jalapeño chile, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 medium ripe avocado, peeled and cut into 1/2-
inch chunks
FOR THE FAJITAS
3 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil, divided
1 pound skirt steak or flank steak, cut into 2-inch
by 1/2-inch strips
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 medium red pepper, seeded and cut into thin
slices
1 medium yellow pepper, seeded and cut into thin
slices
1 jalapeño chile, seeded and minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium tomato, peeled and diced
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
FOR THE GARNISH
1 cup sour cream
Warm corn or flour tortillas
Cilantro leaves
Prepare the salsa. Combine the tomatoes, corn,
cilantro, parsley, jalapeño, lemon juice, salt,
and pepper in a medium mixing bowl. Cover and
refrigerate for up to 4 hours. Spoon it into a serving
bowl. Right before serving, add the avocado and taste
for seasoning.
In a large skillet with high sides, or a wok, over medium-
high heat add 2 tablespoons of oil, swirling to coat the
sides. When the oil is hot, add the beef strips and toss
every 15 to 20 seconds for 3 to 4 minutes or until the
beef is lightly brown. Remove to a side dish.
Add the remaining oil and the onion and toss for a
minute. Add the peppers and jalapeño chile and toss
every 15 to 20 seconds for about 4 to 6 minutes or
until the onion is nicely softened. Add the garlic and
tomatoes and cook another minute. Add the lime juice,
cumin, cilantro, and reserved beef strips and bring to a
boil for a minute. Add salt and pepper to taste and then
transfer to a serving bowl.
Serve immediately with a basket of warm corn or flour
tortillas and small bowls of the sour cream, cilantro,
and salsa on the side.
TASTY TIP:
To save time, pick up a container of fresh pico de
gallo salsa and then add corn and avocado to it.
Season to taste.

Press crumbs into an even layer covering on the

A Bright, Make-Ahead KEY LIME BARS bottom of the baking pan, then use the bottom of a
dry measuring cup to press crumbs firmly into the
pan until very flat.
Dessert for Memorial Day MAKES 16 BARS

FOR THE CRUST

AMERICA'S TEST KITCHEN
Key limes are smaller, yellower cousins to
the bigger, darker green Persian limes you
usually see in the grocery store. They’re
more tart, with fragrant, floral juice, and
used to be grown widely in the Florida
Keys, where cooks invented key lime pie
as a way to use the juice.
To make these key lime bars, you don’t
To make actually need key limes. They can be hard
to find and are so small that you’d have to
these squeeze 20 of them to get 1/3 cup of juice!
key lime Regular Persian limes work just fine; but
whatever you do, don’t use bottled lime
bars, you juice in this recipe (fresh juice has much
better flavor!).
don't Then there’s toasted coconut. It’s a great
actually addition to baked goods such as cookies or
bars, or as a topping for ice cream or oat-
need key meal. It can sometimes burn when you
Place the baking pan in the oven. Bake until the crust
begins to brown at the edges, 15 to 20 minutes.
Transfer to a cooling rack and let the crust cool for at
Vegetable oil spray
least 15 minutes. (Don’t turn oven off.)
5 whole graham crackers, broken into pieces (or
FOR THE FILLING
3/4 cup store-bought graham cracker crumbs)
Meanwhile, in large bowl, whisk condensed milk,
1/3 cup (1 2/3 ounces) all-purpose flour softened cream cheese, lime zest and juice, egg
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) sugar yolk, and a pinch of salt until well combined and
smooth.
1/8 teaspoon salt
Pour the filling evenly over cooled crust. Spread the
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted filling into an even layer to the corners of the pan and
smooth the top. Transfer to the oven and bake until
FOR THE FILLING
the filling is set and no longer jiggles when the pan is
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
shaken gently, 15 to 20 minutes.
1/4 cup (2 ounces) cream cheese, softened Remove from the oven and let the bars cool in the
1 tablespoon grated lime zest plus 1/2 cup juice pan and on the wire rack for 2 hours. Cover the
(zested and squeezed from 4 limes) baking pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate until
Key limes are
smaller and the bars are chilled and firm, at least 2 hours or up
1 large egg yolk
more tart, with to two days.
fragrant, floral Pinch salt Remove the bars from the refrigerator and remove
juice. 1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) sweetened shredded the plastic. Use foil to lift the bars out of the baking
BONCHAN
/SHUTTERSTOCK
coconut, toasted, optional pan and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into squares.
Top squares with toasted coconut or whipped cream
Whipped cream, optional
(if using) and serve.

limes. toast it in the oven, so we like to use the FOR THE CRUST
ELLE SIMONE

microwave, where you can keep a close Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat
eye on it as it cooks. the oven to 325 degrees F. Make an aluminum foil
sling for an 8-inch square metal baking pan. Spray
For 25 years, confident cooks in the know foil with vegetable oil spray.
have relied on America’s Test Kitchen Add cracker pieces, flour, sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon
for rigorously tested recipes developed salt to food processor. Pulse until crackers are
by professional test cooks and vetted by broken into small pieces, about five 1-second pulses.
60,000 at-home recipe testers. See more Process until crackers are finely ground, about 30
online at AmericasTestKitchen.com/ seconds. Add melted butter and pulse until butter is
TCA. Copyright 2021 America’s Test combined with crumbs, about 10 1-second pulses.
Kitchen. Distributed by Tribune Content Remove the lid and processor blade. Use a rubber spatula
Agency, LLC. to scrape the crumb mixture into a foil-lined baking pan. Fresh lime juice gives these bars great flavor.
B4 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021

ALL PHOTOS BY AUDREY LE GOFF

Simple
Sabayon
To make this delicate
French sauce, all
you need are 3
ingredients, gentle
heat, and a lot of
whisking
Continued from B1

This French classic can sound in-

timidating to make at home—but it
shouldn’t be. After all, it’s a one-bowl
recipe that only requires three ingredi-
ents and 10 minutes of your time. Just
be sure to select a proper wine, set up
a bain-marie, and get ready for some
whisking action.

Choose the Wine

Unlike most savory recipes, in which
the type of white wine you choose real-
ly matters, a dessert sabayon welcomes
any type of white wine. Just know that
the sweeter the wine is, the more rich
and concentrated flavor the sabayon
will produce.
Sweet wines such as riesling, muscat,
or an ice wine will make for a richer-
tasting sabayon, perfect for topping
fresh berries. Dry wines, such sauvi-
gnon blanc or muscadet, and sparkling
wines—including Champagne—will
make for a lighter and less-sweet sa-
bayon, better suited for topping a slice
of cake or ice cream in lieu of whipped
cream.
Add Gentle Heat
A bain-marie is essentially the French
way to describe a double-boiler heating
method. This method consists of bring-
ing an inch or two of water to a simmer
in a saucepan, and resting a heatproof
bowl containing the ingredients to be
heated on top of the saucepan without
touching the surface of the water. This
method applies gentle and constant
heat, without burning or boiling any
liquids.
In the case of a sabayon, this gentle
heat ensures that the sauce warms up
and thickens slowly but surely while
you whisk it—instead of heating the egg
yolks too quickly, which could end in
scrambled eggs.
Sabayon is meant to be
enjoyed warm, so prep your STRAWBERRIES WITH SABAYON
strawberries ahead of time,
and make it just before
serving. Sabayon is meant to be served warm, which means you can In a bowl, toss the strawberries with 1 tablespoon of
only make it just before serving. To streamline the process, the sugar and chill for at least one hour.
make sure you have all your ingredients measured out in front
In a large heatproof bowl, whisk together the wine
of you before you start.
and sugar for about 2 minutes, until the sugar has
Taking the extra step to macerate the strawberries in sugar completely dissolved and no crystals remain.
beforehand will draw out their juices and tenderize them, as well
In a saucepan, bring an inch or two of water to a
as make for sweeter bites. The macerated strawberries can be
simmer. Rest the bowl snugly on top. The base of the
prepared and stored in the fridge a few hours in advance.
bowl should not be touching the simmering water.
Once you get familiar with this basic recipe, get creative with
the fruits! Fresh, seasonal berries are perfect, but so are other Add the egg yolks to the bowl and whisk until the
mixture starts to expand and become frothy.
A dessert fleshy fruits such as peaches, apricots, kiwi, mangoes, or
Continue whisking—always making sure the water
papaya. Sabayon is also wonderful dolloped onto a slice of cake
sabayon or scoop of ice cream, or simply served on its own in a cup, with underneath remains at a simmer and never touches
a ladyfinger or two for dipping. the base of the mixing bowl—until the mixture has
welcomes any doubled in size and is thick enough to easily scoop in
SERVES 6 big spoonfuls. If you have a candy thermometer, check
type of white that the temperature of the sauce has reached 150
1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
wine, really— 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
degrees Fahrenheit.
sweet, dry, or 6 large egg yolks, at room temperature
Place strawberries into individual serving cups and
top each cup with about 2/3 cup of warm sabayon.
even sparkling. 2/3 cup white wine (dry, sweet, or sparkling) Enjoy immediately.

Whisk, Whisk, Whisk 1. Whisk together the wine and sugar.

Whisking is pretty much the only in- 2. Add the egg yolks. It’s a one-bowl
struction here. You can use an electric
hand mixer or go the manual route—as 3. Whisk until the mixture has recipe that only
long as you’re prepared for a workout. doubled in size, and is thick enough to
The white wine and sugar are
easily scoop in big spoonfuls. requires three
whisked together first, until the 4. Place strawberries into individual ingredients
sugar is completely dissolved. Then serving cups.
you’ll add the egg yolks and set your
5. Top each cup with warm sabayon.
and 10 minutes
heatproof bowl over the bain-marie.
Continue whisking, always making
of your time.
sure the water underneath remains at
a simmer and never touches the base 1
of the mixing bowl, and watch as the
sauce expands and becomes delight-
fully foamy.
Once the sabayon has doubled in size
and is thick and frothy, it’s ready. If you
have a candy thermometer, check that
the temperature of the sauce reaches
150 degrees Fahrenheit.

2 Ways to Serve
There are two ways of serving a sabay-
on: fresh or broiled. For the first, simply
spoon the warm sabayon sauce on top
of your fresh fruits, and voila!
For the broiled version, make sure
you place your fruits into an oven-safe 2 4
serving vessel first. Then, spoon a few
tablespoons of the sabayon on top,
followed by a sprinkle of icing sugar.
Place the vessel under the broiler or use
a kitchen torch until the top is lightly
golden and caramelized. The sabayon
will puff up slightly with the heat and
deflate as it cools.

Audrey Le Goff is a French food writer,

photographer, and creator of the food
blog Pardon Your French, where she
shares recipes and stories from her
beloved home country, France. She
is the author of the cookbook “Rustic
French Cooking Made Easy” (2019). She 3 5
currently lives in Niagara, Canada.
 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021
In Salmon,
the Story of Alaska
Continued from B1
And each year, this return has fed count-
less harvesters for the winter ahead. Not
just humans: Bears, eagles, and seals all
rely on salmon, as does the forest itself,
fertilized by the fish carcasses the ani-
mals discard.
The world’s largest remaining single
salmon run, ranging from 30 to 62 mil-
lion fish a year, is in Bristol Bay, south-
west of Anchorage in the Bering Sea.
Here, salmon allowed people to survive
crises, even in modern times.
“I believe that salmon went to places
and people followed them knowing that
if salmon were there, they could make a
life there,” said Melanie Brown, a Bristol
Bay fisherman of Yupik/Inupiaq ancestry.
She works a permit area established by her
great-grandfather in the early 20th century.
While the region’s Native population was
decimated by the 1918 flu pandemic, her
ancestors made it through with salmon,
which isn’t only high-calorie but high in
wellness benefits. Brown spent some of her
downtime during this pandemic making a
video for Slow Food USA about her great-
grandmother’s fish-head stew recipe.
“For me, I truly believe that I would
not be here today if not for salmon, and
how they provided for my great-grand-
parents after they were orphaned in the
1918 flu,” said Brown.
David Montgomery, University of
Washington professor and author of a
seminal book about salmon, “King of
Fish,” observed as much.
“The salmon and the landscape
evolved together. Then people arrived
and relied on the salmon,” he said.
“Each is part of the others in a deep and
fundamental way.”
A Sustainable Superfood
Salmon are so numerous in Alaska that
all can enjoy them. Up to 5 billion a year
ply the North Pacific. Carefully managed
by state fisheries scientists—sustainable
fisheries are prescribed in the Alaska
Constitution—as many as 1 billion are
caught by commercial fishermen, an
industry that is worth $500 million to $1
billion a year.
The majority of the harvest, by fish
numbers and value, is sockeye; chinook
is the fish most common on fine dining
menus; and silver salmon are fondly
regarded by anglers. Every restaurant in
the state has salmon on the menu, and
vast portions of the commercial fresh
harvest are flown south each summer
to fill grocery store cooler shelves and
restaurant menus in the Lower 48.
Salmon are born in clear-running
streams and rivers in summer and fall,
overwinter in freshwater, migrate to the
ocean the following spring, and return
four years later to spawn where they
were born. Grown in those rich North
Pacific waters, these fish are packed with
protein, a superfood that’s also divine
to eat. Omega-3s lard their fat; immune
boosters such as B vitamins are thick;
and antioxidants are numerous.
Fish and life in Alaska
are perpetually
intertwined, generation
after generation.
Dee Buchanon, Anchorage,
Alaska resident
The deep persimmon color of fresh
salmon is one of nature’s finest hues.
Properly prepared—that is, cooked
through but not a half-minute more—
salmon is moist, flavorful, enriching,
and enticing. Roast it, grill it, fry it,
smoke it, steam it—no need for sauces or
embellishments. There’s no wrong way
to cook it, unless you over-cook it.
Once, a friend and I were perusing
the menu at a long-gone New Age bistro
in Juneau, and could only gawk at the
waitress when she described the night’s
special.
“A half sockeye salmon? Poached in
duck fat?”
The waitress nodded. “Yep. For two.”
We ordered it. This was the single
richest dish I have ever had, anywhere
in this world. We shouldn’t have eaten it
all, but we did.
If I were a condemned man, my last
meal would be fire-roasted sockeye
B5
TROUTNUT/SHUTTERSTOCK
salmon (with cherry pie and fresh corn).
The occasion would deserve a bless-
ing—for the fish. Here’s one Alaskans
have used for centuries to welcome the
summer’s first salmon, from commercial
fisherwomen Emma Teal Laukitis and
Claire Neaton, the “Salmon Sisters.” They
adapted it from a book on Native culture
by Hilary Stewart, who in turn adapted it 1
from a traditional Native prayer.
Now I will go and lay you down on this mat MISHA DUMOV, MB COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
which is spread on the floor for you, Swimmer.
This is your own saying when you came
And gave a dream to my grandfathers.
Lasting Bonds
Though the human–salmon bond is
ancient, it thrives today. I often joke that
every Alaska household has two freez-
ers, one for salmon and one for moose
(many Alaskans never tasted beef until
they came to the Lower 48 to attend
college). Each Alaska resident is entitled
to harvest up to 25 salmon per year for
personal use, and most do just that.
“Our fish freezer is currently full of
salmon, rockfish, halibut, yellow eye,
and ling cod,” reported Dee Buchanon,
an Anchorage business executive who 2
came to Alaska when she was 5 and has
been fishing ever since.
ERIC LUCAS
“The moose freezer is unplugged
because we didn’t get one last year—so
we traded some fish for moose with our
neighbors. It is illegal to ‘sell’ any wild-
Each summer and fall
caught or harvested wild game, so the the fish return, billions of
barter system is strong in Alaska. We
have a new executive assistant at my of- them, fat and large, from
fice who moved up from North Carolina. the ocean, and migrate
She asked us, ‘Where do I buy salmon?’
We all looked at each other with blank upstream to ancestral
stares on our faces. I said, ‘You’re an 3
Alaskan now. You don’t buy salmon. I’ll spawning grounds.
bring you some.’
1. Salmon are born in clear-running streams
“Fish and life in Alaska are perpetually and rivers in summer and fall, overwinter in
intertwined, generation after genera- Eric Lucas has visited Alaska more freshwater, migrate to the ocean the follow-
tion,” Buchanon explained. than 50 times. Author of six Mi- ing spring, and return four years later to spawn
I reckon the debate over which kind is chelin guides, including one that where they were born.
best dates back as many generations as covers the Great Land, he is a retired
the harvest. As Solomon said, there is associate editor at Alaska Beyond 2. Melanie Brown, a Bristol Bay fisherman of
Yupik/Inupiaq ancestry, with a photograph of
nothing new under the sun. Magazine. He lives on a small farm
her great-grandmother and great-grandfather.
Once, at a fund-raising dinner for on a remote island north of Seattle,
salmon conservation, I was seated at where he grows organic hay, beans, 3. Melanie Brown with her kids, Oliver Lamkin
a table with six Alaska women, all of apples, and squash. and Mariana Bell, and a freshly caught sockeye.
whom were commercial fishermen.
While perusing the menu (surprise:
salmon!), I posed the question of which
type is best. SALMON SOUP
“Boy, Eric, you like to live dangerously,”
observed one of my companions.
“Even so,” I replied. “Your favorite? Melanie Brown, a Bristol Bay fisherman of Yupik/ soup pot until the rice is cooked.
Above all?” Inupiaq ancestry, shared this recipe for salmon soup.
Rinse excess slime off of the salmon head and make
The six cleared their throats, eyed each It’s based on her great-grandmother’s fish-head stew.
sure that the gills are cut out from under the gill plates.
other cautiously, and declaimed their 1 bouillon cube, or 1 teaspoon bouillon paste Work carefully, because the head is slippery and
choices. Three picked sockeye; three difficult to cut through. Cut it in half, so that you have
1/2 small onion, cut into rings or half-rings
king. two mirrored sides, and then begin cutting each side
“Guess you’ll have to break the tie,” 1 celery heart, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick into smaller pieces. Cut around the eyes to leave intact
Melanie Brown told me. crescents for the eye lovers. Also, be sure not to cut through the
So I did. Sea salt cheeks—cut around them so that they remain intact.
If there’s any blood on the pieces after you’re done
Onion powder cutting them, be sure to rinse it off with cold water. The
Salmon Smarts
Five kinds of salmon ply the North 1/4 cup uncooked rice blood will discolor the broth and taint the flavor.
Pacific in incredible numbers, up to 5 2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari Cut the tail portion of the salmon into cubes with the
billion a year. Each kind has at least two 1 salmon head skin still on it. The skin will easily come off when the
common names: salmon is cooked in the soup.
Chinook, aka king or spring, are the Tail end of salmon
When the rice is cooked, turn the heat down to low and
biggest, ranging from 15 to 100 pounds. Fill a soup pot half full with cold water and place on it carefully place the pieces of head into the soup pot. Use
They are usually first to return in medium heat. Add a bouillon cube or bouillon paste and the eye and the cartilage as a visual guide. When the
summer. dissolve into heating water. center of the eye is white and the cartilage has turned
Silver, aka coho, are lean, lengthy fish Sauté onion that has been cut into rings or half-rings. from clear to milky, put the salmon cubes in and remove
up to 25 pounds. Anglers love them for Add celery that has been cut crosswise into crescents the pot from the heat. The fish will cook very quickly.
their flashing, aerial runs when hooked. across the whole celery heart—roughly seven cuts, The cartilage in the head is easy to chew through and very
Sockeye, aka red, are fatty and flavor- about 1/4-inch wide. Add some seasoning of salt and flavorful. Other bits that aren’t edible will stay between
ful and range up to 12 pounds. Their onion powder, so that the flavors bind for the flavor base your teeth when you bite them, and you can sort them out.
spawning colors are the most vivid of all of the soup. Add onion and celery sauté to the soup Make sure that you suck the juice out of the bits before
salmon. when they become softer, but not mushy. taking them out of your mouth. Your hands will get sticky
Pink, aka humpy (for the spawn- Add the rice to the soup, as well as roughly 2 from the richness of the oil. Just accept the fact that your
ing hump they develop), throng home tablespoons of soy sauce. meal will be a very tactile and visceral experience.
streams so thickly the water can seem Begin preparing your salmon, but don’t put into the Courtesy of Melanie Brown
like it’s half fish. Usually these are
canned, though when fresh, pinks are
excellent eating.
Chum, aka dog or keta, are large,
muscular fish whose flavor is muskier
than that of the other kinds. Rarely seen
in stores or on menus, they have been
traditionally used as food for Alaska sled
ALL PHOTOS BY MISHA DUMOV, MB COMMERCIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
dogs, and considered by some the best
for smoking.
The keys for salmon shoppers: Fresh-
ness is paramount, so ask when the fish
came in, and from where; the brighter
the color and firmer the fish, the fresher
they are; and although fresh-frozen is
fine (that is, salmon that was frozen im-
mediately after it was caught, shipped,
then often defrosted for sale), it sim-
ply isn’t as good as fresh, period. And
Alaskans fervently favor wild salmon:
“Friends don’t let friends eat farmed
salmon,” argues a ubiquitous bumper
sticker. Preparing the soup. Melanie Brown’s salmon soup.
B6 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021

CROSSWORD CONSTRUCTED BY TOM HOUSTON

EPOCH TIMES STAFF 19. Program, in a stuffy 4NUMBERS CONSTRUCTED BY C. CHANG
AT 4NUMS.COM DAILY BRIDGE CLUB
auditorium?
Use the four numbers in the corners, and Speaking of money
23. Deer leader, for the operands (+, - X, and ÷) to build an BY FRANK STEWART, TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY
Santa? equation to get the solution in the middle.
There may be more than one “unique” so- ©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
25. “And so to ___” lution but, there may also be “equivalent”
26. Flamboyance solutions. For example: 6 + (7 X 3) +1 = 28 “One thing I’ve learned,” said Cy the Cynic,
27. Utah lilies and 1+ (7 X 3) + 6 = 28 who was philosophizing in the club lounge:
“Money talks.”
28. “Ah” and “OMG” in “Agreed,” Unlucky Louie sighed. “And its
old writing favorite word is ‘goodbye.’”
29. Ralph of “The Wal- Louie had waved goodbye to some of
his money in that day’s penny game. When
tons” I watched today’s deal, he was declarer
30. Jitters at six spades, and West led his singleton
jack of clubs. Louie knew enough to take
32. First word of Virgil’s dummy’ s ace, but he next cashed the A-K
“Aeneid” of hearts and ruffed his jack with dummy’
33. Neither here ___ there s seven of trumps. East overruffed, took
his king of clubs and gave West a club ruff.
(like a duffer’s lost ball?) Down two.
34. Nitrogen compound How would you play the slam?
35. Pôrto ___, Brazil
Hard 1 - 1 Solution DRAWS TRUMPS
36. That’s an order! Louie forgot to count his tricks. After he
39. Nukes takes the ace of clubs, he can draw trumps,
40. Roman sandal pitching a diamond from dummy. He next
leads the queen of clubs. East takes the
41. 1 through 9, of course? king and leads a heart.
42. Gofer: Abbr. Louie wins with the king, cashes his ten
44. “April Theses” author of clubs, leads a heart to dummy’s ace and
ruffs a club with his last trump. He wins the
46. Of ___ (old enough to last three tricks with the K-A of diamonds
know better?) and dummy’s good club.
49. Corp. money manag- DAILY QUESTION
ers You hold: {AQJ6 2 KJ 7 K3
51. Dark loaves yQ107. The dealer, at your right, opens
one diamond. What do you say?
52. “A Chorus Line” Hard 2 - 1 Solution ANSWER: This is a close call. You have
number? 16 high-card points and a good five-card
Across 43. Kind of witness 76. “Will Be” to Day? 53. In stages suit, and your king of diamonds, positioned
1. RR stop 45. Members of Con- 77. Boardroom V.I.P.’s 54. Tertiary Period epoch
behind the opening bidder, is worth as
much as an ace. To double, intending to
4. Flower or locust tree gress 78. Integrates 55. Five-time Derby win- bid spades next, would be reasonable. I
10. Painter Bonheur 47. Continental abbr. 79. “M*A*S*H” prop ner would judge that approach to be slightly
14. Sufficient, in verse 48. Tiny fraction of a min. too aggressive. I would start with a one-
56. Aggravation spade overcall.
16. One who only has “I’s” 50. Ladies’ men Down 60. Earthquake
for you? 51. Additional military aid 1. Sun. talks 61. “It’s a Wonderful Life” North dealer
or augmentation 2. Bolt holder N-S vulnerable
17. After-work options, role
briefly? 53. Islay Scotches 3. Inadvisable action 62. Cries of triumph
18. Mediocre 57. “The Last Days of 4. Eastern pooh-bah 63. 1959 hit with a
20. Low in pitch Pompeii” heroine 5. College in Cedar Rapids melody based on the folk Easy 1 - 2 Solutions
21. Leaf apertures 58. ___-relief 6. Bread box, for short? song “The Wreck of the
22. Otalgia 59. Smarts 7. 136% of LXXV Old 97”
24. “Gimme ___!” (cheer- 62. Med. plan 8. Key 65. Andean root veg-
leading shout) 64. Plaintiff 9. Earth, bound? etables
25. Kind of list 65. Fiber source 10. Vulgar humor 66. “Juice” (Abbr.)
28. Fess (up) 69. Affix a brand on 11. Ancient source of 67. Without it, Boeing
30. Congo river 70. French 2011 “Bro- prophecy manufactures nautical
31. “That is” mance” and winner of a 12. Pageant accessories crafts?
32. Over and over 2012 César Award, with 13. Affirm 68. Future atty.’s hurdle
37. Ginger, e.g. “The” 15. Don Juan 71. 1000 gigs
38. Court plea, for short 74. Calvary inscription 16. The end for Ann, Nan 72. Alternative to net
39. Where China is 75. Western range and Jean? 73. Script ending Easy 2 - 1 Solution

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.

ACACIA EOCENE OATMEAL SASHES

ACCUSER ERNIE OGHAM SEGOS
AGAIN AND GIGOLOS ORACLE SEISM
AGAIN HORSE SENSE PEATY SENATORS
ALEGRE ID EST PHASIC SIERRAS
AMINE IONIC REENFORCE- SOLEA
ARCARO IRONS MENT STOMATA
ASSERT ISLET RHIZOME TSURIS
ATLAS LENIN RIBALD UNEASE
EARACHE MATERIAL RUNOFTHE- WAITE
EGOTIST MERGES MILL WOMANIZER

SOLUTIONS
CROSSWORD SUPER KAKURO
4 NUMBERS
HARD 1

HARD 2

EASY 1

EASY 2
 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 B7

SUDOKU CONSTRUCTED
BY KANNAN SANKARAN SUPERSUDOKU CONSTRUCTED
BY KANNAN SANKARAN WORK SPACE
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,
row, and each 3x3 square contain all nine numbers only once. each row, and each 4x4 square contain all ten numbers and six letters only once.
Hard

Easy

CRYPTIC QUOTE

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,
*HWWKHIUHH-867-80%/(DSS‡)ROORZXVRQ7ZLWWHU#3OD\-XPEOH

in a run cannot repeat. When the grid is filled, the puzzle is complete. one letter to each square,
to form four ordinary words.
Easy LIHEW
EPOCH ESCAPE MAZE
BIOTR

NIYRWE

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

WORK SPACE

SOLUTIONS
SUPERSUDOKU SUDOKU: EASY JUMBLE EASY KAKURO
— OVERTHROWN
strikeouts until he was WORK SPACE

the team in wins and

The pitcher had led
Answers:
DEVOUR
WINERY
ORBIT
WHILE
Jumbles:
SUDOKU: HARD EPOCH DOKU

CRYPTIC QUOTE
something at once.
at once, but we can do
We cannot do everything
B8 THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021

KEN SCHULZE/ SHUTTERSTOCK

Wine of the Week

COURTESY OF FAMILLE PERRIN

2020 Perrin Cotes du Rhone
Reserve (Blanc) ($13):
White wines don’t often display such
beautiful, aromatic complexities as
this one, a blend of various Southern
Jim Clendenen and Dr. David Bruce were iconic figures in California’s world of fine wine. Rhone varieties. There’s a delicate
WINE floral note, a bit of peach, and a

Remembering 2 California Wine Pioneers

succulence normally found in more
expensive wines.

DAN BERGER cellent wines. It grows in many locations, fellow who made friends easily and, when When he planted his vineyard in 1961
withstands some of Mother Nature’s harsh- not making wine, spent much of his work- in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and when
Recently, the world lost two of the most est conditions year to year, and takes well to ing life visiting France and getting to know Clendenen planted his 21 years later in
important figures in California’s wine his- being blended for improvement. virtually every great winemaker there who Santa Barbara County, the world was still
tory when Jim Clendenen and Dr. David Chardonnay and pinot noir, by contrast, had fingers in both varieties. He learned unaware of what they were doing. I got
Bruce passed away. are difficult-to-handle Burgundian grapes tricks and strategies, came home to apply to know both men well in the late 1970s
Clendenen was 68. Bruce was 89. that are far more recalcitrant and don’t like them, and shared his knowledge freely with and found them to be overwhelmingly
These men were iconic figures in Cali- being blended; they are solipsists. Also, follow winemakers. dedicated to a craft that could be called
fornia’s world of fine wine, but not in the they’re closely connected to their soils and David Bruce, a dermatologist and thankless, especially since audiences were
way many people think of domestic wine climes, and therefore, they often make dedicated Burgundy lover, was a quiet, so limited.
history: They were producers of great mediocre wines when planted in the thoughtful man who spent many of his In today’s world, great California chardon-
cabernet sauvignons that can win wrong spots. working years traipsing through vine- nays and pinot noirs command prices top-
head-to-head contests with Finding great examples of char- yards of California’s Central Coast, where ping $100 a bottle, and wine collectors invest
mighty Bordeaux. Both men donnay or pinot isn’t easy, so the he believed a Burgundian style of wine not only in wine bottles but also in the lands
Cabernet put California on led the way to best, from France’s Burgundy (both white and red) could successfully they see as producing exceptional wines to
the international wine stage. creating this district, can be outrageously ex- be produced. rival those of Burgundy.
Today’s cabs command outra- Burgundian pensive and nearly impossible As such, he pioneered purchasing fruit Both men led the way to creating this Bur-
geous prices and are considered explosion. to obtain. from virtually every vineyard from which gundian explosion.
highly collectible the world over. It was that challenge, as well as he thought he could produce an exem- The world has lost two of its most visionary
What Clendenen and Bruce did, several others, that led Clendenen plary wine, and he frequently did so for an U.S. practitioners from this once-obscure
with far less public recognition, was and Bruce to accept the challenge so many audience that (in the early 1960s) simply sector of the wine-art industry—losses I feel
shine a spotlight on two grape varieties avoided: to make exemplary wines from had to accept his word that those wines most personally.
that decades ago had checkered histories those grapes. And they did so in spite of the were authentic.
and were always poorly understood. Their fact that at the times they founded their re- Back then in California, burgundy was a To find out more about Dan Berger and
efforts helped fixed that. spective wineries, the general public had lower-case red wine blend of no account read features by other Creators Syndicate
Not to demean cabernet’s success, but it’s virtually no interest in either grape. and hadn’t yet ascended to the capital B writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators
a grape that’s awfully forgiving. It allows Jim Clendenen, who founded Au Bon Cli- Burgundy later wine lovers would revere. Syndicate webpage at Creators.com.
winemakers much latitude in making ex- mat in 1982, was a gregarious, loquacious Bruce’s clientele learned the ropes from him. Copyright 2021 Creators.com

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