Epoch Insight Sample Issue

The New Wild West

By Charlotte Cuthbertson

AUGUST 20–27 | 2021

Editor’s note

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Yet despite these challenges, our reporters and editors around the world will continue their commitment to you, our reader. We believe that the light of truth is the most powerful force for good.

We want to thank you for becoming a subscriber to INSIGHT, and we invite any feedback you might have. on b e h a l f of a l l ou r sta f f

Jasper Fakkert Editor-in-chief

2 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

INSIGHT

STEPHEN GREGORY PUBLISHER

by

JASPER FAKKERT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CHANNALY PHILIPP LIFE & TRADITION, TRAVEL EDITOR

The New Wild West

By Charlotte Cuthbertson

AUGUST 27 – 2021

ON THE COVER Kinney County Constable Steve Gallegos finds an illegal alien in the back of a car near Brackettville, Texas. There were six other illegal aliens in the same car.

CHRISY TRUDEAU MIND & BODY EDITOR CRYSTAL SHI HOME, FOOD EDITOR SHARON KILARSKI ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR SHANSHAN HU PRODUCTION CONTACT US THE EPOCH TIMES ASSOCIATION INC. 229 W. 28TH ST., FL. 7 NEW YORK, NY 10001 ADVERTISING ADVERTISENOW@EPOCHTIMES.COM SUBSCRIPTIONS, GENERAL INQUIRIES, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR HELP.THEEPOCHTIMES.COM (USPS21-800)is published weekly by the Epoch Media Group, 9550 Flair dr. suite 411, El Monte ca 91731-2922. periodical postage paid at el monte, ca, and additional mailing offices. postmaster: send address changes to The Epoch Times, 229 w. 28th street, floor 5, New York, ny 10001.

issue 01 | august 20–27, 2021

2 | Editor’s Note

50 | Inflation

A number of factors could be contributing to more persistent inflation.

30 | China–

Taliban Relations The Chinese regime provides "all support" to the Taliban to form a government in Afghanistan.paying the price.

51 | China

Investment Should U.S. investors boost their investment in China?

37 | Volunteering

54 | COVID-19

Serving locally makes you feel more connected to the community.

38 | Vaccine Help

No compensation or care provided for vaccine-related injuries.

44 | Pandemic

Impact Protracted rent moratoriums are forcing small landlords to sell.

48 | Afghanistan

America needs a tougher and smarter strategy.

49 | Gold

What does the end of the gold era mean for the monetary system?

Features

8 | Texas Country, All-in

Kinney County takes matters into their own hands to curb a surge of illegal immigrants on the border.

20 | US Involvement, Wuhan Lab

A timeline of how U.S. officials scrambled to respond to questions about controversial research at the lab.

49 | Fighting for Justice

Lawyers in Nigeria fight persecution against Christians.

Fallout Martin Kulldorff on "the biggest public health fiasco in history."

58 | Anchors

Aweigh!

Boating 101: How to get started

60 | Epoch Booklist 61 | Epoch Watchlist 62 | Mont-St-Michel 59 | Summer Beers A list of "must-try" brews.

66 | Mindful Living Changing the pace wins the race.

Kern County Fire Captain Bruce Wells uses a hose line to keep fire from burning up a tree as the wildfire burns close to homes in the Sequoia National Forest near Wofford Heights, Calif., on Aug. 25, 2021.

PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 3

IN FOCUS Escaping Afghanistan FOLLOWING AMERICA'S PULLOUT from Afghanistan, troops scramble to evacuate Americans and Afghans who assisted the U.S. military during the war. U.S. authorities said that as of Aug. 22, 17,000 people had been evacuated, an estimated 2,500 of whom are Americans. The Pentagon said it was unable to gauge how many Americans remained in Afghanistan, but President Joe Biden said the number could be up to 15,000.

PHOTO BY SHAKIB RAHMANI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

4 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 5

The Week in Short | U.S.

“​​THE IDEA THAT SOMEHOW, THERE’S A WAY TO HAVE GOTTEN OUT WITHOUT CHAOS ENSUING, I DON’T KNOW HOW THAT HAPPENS.” President Joe Biden, saying to ABC NEWS that it was impossible to do so without “chaos.”

BIDEN THREATENS LEGAL ACTION AGAINST GOVERNORS WHO BAN MASK MANDATES IN SCHOOL

Governors who ban school mask mandates could face legal action from the federal government, President Joe Biden has warned.

Biden said in remarks at the White House that he was directing Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to use “his oversight authority and legal action, if appropriate, against governors trying to block and intimidate local school officials and educators.”

348,000 CLAIMS

The number of American workers filing for unemployment fell to a pandemic-era low, at 348,000 for the week ending Aug. 14, the Labor Department said.

“When schools allow the classification of children based on race, they violate both state and federal law.”

Leslie Rutledge, attorney general, Arkansas, saying in a press release that teaching Critical Race Theory ideologies in schools violates U.S. laws.

TEXAS GOVERNOR ISSUES ORDER TO MAINTAIN

Facebook says it will maintain its ban of pro-Taliban content under “U.S. law,” after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.

6 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

Ban on COVID Vaccine Mandates

ATexas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued an executive order maintaining the state’s prohibition of COVID-19 vaccine mandates by any government entity, regardless of a vaccine’s approval status with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

US Drug Regulators Approve Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine

U.S. drug regulators have approved the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech for people 16 and older, making it the first such shot to receive full approval in the country.

The Food and Drug Administration said the vaccine, which will be known as Comirnaty, proved effective in a clinical trial of approximately 44,000 people. The shot was 91 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 infection, regulators said, and also was effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalization.

Judge Sanctions 9 Trump Campaign Attorneys Over Election Lawsuit

A federal judge in Michigan has sanctioned Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, and seven other attorneys who represented the Trump campaign in a lawsuit challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

U.S. District Judge Linda Parker referred the nine attorneys for investigation and possible disbarment or suspension by relevant state authorities.

Parker also ordered the sanctioned individuals to pay the court fees tied to the election lawsuit and to take legal education classes

“We are seeing concerning evidence of waning vaccine effectiveness over time and against the Delta variant."

7

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying during a news conference that data sourced from Israel on COVID-19 vaccines show decreasing effectiveness of the vaccines over time.

MILLION More than 7 million Americans are set to lose federal pandemic unemployment benefits in September.

A SURVEY BY SALESFORCE SHOWS THAT 53.3 PERCENT OF SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES SAID STAFFING ISSUES HAVE BEEN A DRAG ON REVENUES.

53.3

%

CHICAGO PHARMACIST ARRESTED FOR SELLING

REAL COVID-19 VACCINE CARDS ONLINE: DOJ U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials said they’ve charged a Chicago-based pharmacist with selling dozens of authentic COVID-19 vaccination cards on eBay. Tangtang Zhao, 34, allegedly sold 125 authentic Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine cards for about $10 apiece, said the DOJ in a news. Zhao is accused of selling the vaccination cards to about 11 different buyers.

Federal Lawsuit Claims California Recall Election Unconstitutional

Offering voters the chance to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom goes against the U.S. Constitution’s “one person, one vote” legal standard, a new lawsuit claims.

The recall election is slated to take place Sept. 14, and many voters have already received absentee ballots.

SENATORS ASK FTC TO PROBE TESLA’S SELF-DRIVING CLAIMS FOLLOWING CRASHES Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have called on the Federal Trade Commis-

sion (FTC), in a letter, to probe Tesla, alleging that the company exaggerated the capability of its vehicles’ self-driving features and so put the public in danger.

It comes after federal authorities announced a probe into Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems following nearly a dozen crashes with parked emergency vehicles that injured 17 people and left one dead.

Paid federal income taxes

39%

U.S. FEDERAL INCOME TAXES PAID IN

2020

61% Paid no federal income taxes

IMAGES BY SHUTTERSTOCK; PHOTOS BY GETTY IMAGES; AP; INSTAGRAM; THE EPOCH TIMES

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 7

The Ne

On the border, Kinney Co surge of illegal immigrant brought a deluge of vehicle

8 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

Kinney County Constable Steve Gallegos and Kinney County sheriff's deputies arrest a smuggler and seven illegal aliens from Guatemala near Brackettville, Texas, on May 25, 2021.

PHOTO BY CHARLOTTE CUTHBERTSON/THE EPOCH TIMES

ew Wild West

ounty has big aspirations to curb an unprecedented ts that has left ranchers' property destroyed and e pursuits, with no federal help in sight ✒

Text & Photos by Charlotte Cuthbertson I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 9

B

On the border The New Wild West

r ac k e t t v i l l e , t e x a s —Kinney

County, Texas, Deputy Danny Molinar stopped a vehicle containing three illegal aliens on July 24. The U.S. citizen driver and his vehicle were based out of Dallas. He was charged with smuggling and released—the local jail is full.

THE THREE ILLEGAL ALIENS, all from Mexico,

TEXAS Kinney County

Texas shares 1,254 miles of international border with Mexico, all separated by the Rio Grande.

were turned over to Border Patrol.

Four days later, Molinar stopped a vehicle based out of Austin. In it, he found the same three illegal aliens, wearing exactly the same clothing. Another U.S. driver was released pending charges. His arrest warrant, along with around 126 others, will sit on the sheriff’s desk until space opens up in his 14-bed jail.

One of the illegal immigrants being smuggled told Molinar that she was going to keep trying “until she got through.” Once again, she was handed over to Border Patrol.

With limited to zero consequences, illegal aliens have no reason to give up and go home—they know they’ll get through eventually.

Most law enforcement officers in the region have similar stories.

Officials in Kinney County have long given up on federal help, and, while the state is providing some assistance, they’re finding it difficult to access and have started looking elsewhere to solve their border security issues.

“I think we’re on our own here,” Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe said.

The county is considering hiring private security contractors, who have worked in Iraq and Afghanistan, to address the thousands of illegal aliens on the ranchlands.

10 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

Coe has started charging illegal aliens with trespassing, evading on foot, and child endangerment.

He’s also ready to personally drop illegal immigrants off halfway along the international bridge in Del Rio if he finds out they’re not being deported.

After hearing how overwhelmed Coe’s stable of six full-time deputies are, Galveston Sheriff Henry Trochesset is sending at least four deputies on Aug. 18 to bolster the team. Galveston Constable Jimmy Fullen hit the ground on Aug. 16 in Kinney County.

County Attorney Brent Smith is pushing for the state to approve the use of Florida deputies from sheriffs who are willing to help.

Florida’s Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey told The Epoch Times that if the state approves, he’s ready to help however he can, including sending a deputy or two.

Coe, along with several other Texas sheriffs and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration on July 1 for its “unlawful and unconstitutional” requirements regarding the arrest and deportation of illegal aliens.

And, along with the city and county of Uvalde, Kinney County has set up a subregional planning commission to help force the relevant state agencies to the table.

About Kinney

A group of Venezuelans wait to be picked up by Recent trail camera photos illegal Border Patrolofafter illegally aliens provided by ranchers in Kinney crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into Del Rio, County, Texas.

Texas, on June 3, 2021.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF RANCHERS

The 3,600 residents of Kinney County, Texas, aren’t exactly novices to the side effects of border surges, but the current influx is beyond anything many have experienced.

Although the county—1,360 square miles—only shares 16 miles of international border with Mexico, it’s on a direct smuggling route from the border cities of Del Rio and Eagle Pass to San Antonio and beyond. The county, with its extensive ranchlands, has become a thoroughfare for illegal immigrants who don’t want to be caught.

In July, almost 10,000 illegal aliens evaded Border Patrol in the Del Rio Sector, in which Kinney County sits, according to preliminary Customs and Border Protection (CBP) numbers released by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Aug. 2.

It’s impossible to estimate the number that went undetected and got away. Border Patrol agents are constantly being pulled off the border and into processing centers as the numbers surge.

The local Border Patrol highway checkpoint is in neighboring Uvalde, 60 miles beyond the border, and a web of small county roads leads around it.

The extra presence of Texas state troopers surged to the area has recently slowed the vehicle smuggling apprehensions in Kinney from a daily occurrence to several a week, while more illegal aliens have taken to walking through the ranches.

The sheriff’s weekly incident reports are full of

ILLEGAL ALIEN TRAFFIC The Kinney County Sheriff’s office has six full-time deputies. In July, almost 10,000 illegal aliens evaded Border Patrol in the Del Rio Sector, in which Kinney County sits. During the past two weeks, the county has filed trespassing charges against more than 170 illegal aliens who were apprehended by state troopers.

calls regarding break-ins, burglaries, and smuggling encounters. On May 25, The Epoch Times was present when law enforcement stopped a U.S. citizen driving a vehicle with seven illegal alien Guatemalans on board, including two crammed in the trunk.

On July 21, local and state law enforcement stopped a stolen pickup truck out of Houston. The driver and passenger were both illegal aliens from Honduras.

On July 30, part-time Kinney County Deputy Mike McCourt stopped a vehicle that contained five illegal aliens, a stolen rifle, and $8,000 in cash.

The sheer volume of foot traffic is evident in the number of dead bodies that the sheriff has had to count recently. In the past two and a half months, eight bodies have been found, mostly on ranches.

Coe said the average for Kinney County is about one per year. Hunters will likely find more as the season opens and the heat continues to take its toll.

Local rancher Cole Hill’s property is situated on an illegal alien thoroughfare that flanks the Border Patrol checkpoint. He’s dealt with illegal aliens traversing his land for years, but only around 25 people a year and sometimes months would go by with no activity.

That changed on Jan. 20 this year, when his dog alerted him to a man on the front porch dressed head-to-toe in camouflage clothing.

“That was just kind of the beginning of this giant snowball that’s occurring,” Hill said. Encounters I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 11

Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe talks about the impact of the border crisis in his county, in Kinney County, Texas, on May 23, 2021.

with illegal aliens—mostly men in groups—is now an almost daily occurrence and he’s fed up.

“Sure, there’s probably some good apples in there as well. But I don’t think the good apples are 35 miles off the river trying to evade every law enforcement they can as aggressively as they are,” he said.

On July 30, he saw at least three illegal aliens at his ranch worker house, and called Border Patrol and the local sheriff’s office.

Border Patrol was on scene first, but the illegal aliens had wired the gate shut and escaped on foot before the patrol truck got through. The aliens had broken into the house, stolen food, and destroyed the ignition in Hill’s truck while trying to steal it.

Hours later, they were apprehended on the ranch across Highway 90 and their footprints were matched to those on Hill’s ranch. They’re currently detained in the Briscoe Unit in Dilley, pending charges brought by the Texas Department of Safety (DPS), Coe said. The Briscoe Unit has been repurposed by the state to detain almost 1,000 illegal aliens who are waiting for their court cases and serving out their sentences.

Coe, who was a Border Patrol agent for 31 years before becoming sheriff, said he’s never seen illegal aliens intentionally destroying property like they have been this year.

“We’ve always had a fence cut here, fence cut

12 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

"Let Kinney County be the model, let them see what can be done when we put our mind to it.

Instead of rolling over playing dead, let's be proactive."

Brad Coe, sheriff, Kinney County there, because they’re hauling dope or small kids or something,” he said. “But we’ve never seen the intentional big four-by-four holes in the fence, or now, a 10-foot section just cut completely out. That’s really starting to bother me.”

County leaders are nervous about the approaching hunting season, but it’s a boon for local business-

es and after a pandemic-riddled year in 2020, they need the income. The county’s population is set to double during the hunting season and it’s inevitable that hunters, with their high-powered rifles, will come face-to-face with illegal aliens walking through the ranches.

So far, though, the only gunshot injury recorded was when an illegal alien accidentally shot another while they were stealing firearms from a ranch.

Seeking Solutions Kinney County kicked off its call for help on April 21 by declaring a state of disaster in the county. Other counties followed, and a slew of community meetings throughout the state attracted hundreds of irate residents.

In a weather-related disaster, the state’s version of FEMA, Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) kicks in with assistance.

“We’ll have a hail storm and TDEM is on the phone immediately, asking if we need anything,” Goliad County judge Mike Bennett said. But he said he didn’t hear from the agency after his county declared a disaster over the border crisis on April 21.

Gov. Greg Abbott has issued several executive orders meant to disburse assistance for local border regions, but counties such as Kinney have found it difficult to access help, including TDEM’s resources

A total of 52 illegal immigrants from Mexico and Honduras wait to be booked for criminal trespass after being arrested

by Texas state troopers on local ranches, at the Kinney County Sheriff's Office in Brackettville, Texas, on Aug. 13, 2021.

212,672 Border Patrol apprehensions along the southern border in July—a 20-year monthly high.

and the $1 billion the state allocated to border security in the last legislative session.

Meanwhile, the border crisis has been eating up local resources.

The sheriff’s deputies spend a majority of their time on callouts related to illegal aliens. EMS Director Henry Garcia said 50 percent of calls in June were illegal alien-related. He said he’s worried residents won’t get the help they need in an emergency since the county has just one ambulance crew available at any given time and the fire department is run by volunteers.

Frustrated with the absence of federal help and slow state response, county leadership began talks with Garrison Trading, a private security contracting company that has worked in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“If y’all are good enough for the U.S. military, you’re good enough for Texans,” Smith, the county attorney, said during the Kinney County Commissioners meeting on July 7. But, legally, it’s a “patchwork of statutes” to work through, he said.

Rex Morford, president of the Colorado-based company, told the commissioners on July 7 that his team is working on getting the required state licenses and insurances to operate in Texas. The licenses were subsequently approved at the beginning of August, pending insurance review.

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 13

"I don’t think the good apples are 35 miles off the river trying to evade every law enforcement they can as aggressively as they are. " Cole Hill, rancher, Kinney County

14 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

“Our primary focus is to support you—we’re not here to take over. This is not Iraq. This is not Afghanistan. This is America,” Morford said during the commissioners meeting.

“What we’d like to do is start shutting down avenues along the border. You’ve got multiple lanes of approach. We can help shut those down.”

The sheriffs from Uvalde and Val Verde counties also attended the meeting, along with judges from Edwards and Jeff Davis counties.

The response from state officials has been tepid and a TDEM official told county leaders that a lot of what Garrison could help with is being tackled by the state.

“A lot of the things you describe are already ongoing in Texas,” said Tony Pena, assistant chief for TDEM, during a Zoom conference on July 7. “A lot of these things are already being addressed. I’m not trying to be negative here.”

TDEM officials told meeting participants that they had to submit a State of Texas assistance request (STAR) form to access resources. It was the first time Kinney County officials had ever heard of a STAR request; same with the judges from Edwards and Jeff Davis counties who were also on the call.

Jail space has been one of the most critical bottlenecks, and the county considered using Garrison to build and staff a temporary facility.

At the same time, the state looked at using Brackettville’s Civic Center as a temporary jail facility,

Texas, Nebraska, and Iowa state troopers, along with Border Patrol and the Kinney County constable, detain the driver of a stolen vehicle and prepare to search the vehicle in Kinney County, Texas, on July 21, 2021.

1,276,194 APPREHENSIONS

along the southern border in the past 10 months.

On the border The New Wild West

I'm almost of the mindset that it's time to call for a state militia.

Don McLaughlin mayor, Uvalde

but the county commissioners ruled that out as it’s smack in the middle of town. Instead, they offered the use of 60 acres adjacent to the county detention center.

Brandon Wood, head of the Texas Jail Commission, joined the July 12 commissioner’s meeting by phone and suggested the county needs to work through TDEM to set up temporary jail space.

“We need to know what y’all need ... and what you’re trying to do down there,” Wood said.

Smith said, “We’ve been trying to get TDEM to help us since April.”

Since then, Kinney County’s jail issues have been relieved somewhat, as DPS erected a temporary jail facility in neighboring Val Verde County, which can hold 96 inmates, and the Briscoe Unit is up and running.

But neither facility is accepting felons, which means drivers charged with smuggling illegal aliens are more often than not being released, pending charges. Illegal alien drivers often aren’t charged and are just handed to Border Patrol to deport.

The high price tag for any extra security measures not being met by TDEM means a potential push for private donations; the Kinney County Commissioners Court on Aug. 2 approved the set-up of a bank account that will accept border security donations.

A public web portal has yet to be launched.

Even if they can access TDEM funding, counties often have to bear the upfront costs in many cases

Follow @ charlottecuthbo on Twitter for border updates and video footage

and the small counties don’t have bags of spare operating capital laying around.

Edwards County Judge Souli Shanklin said he’s still waiting for TDEM to reimburse his county for a 2018 flood.

“Of the $1 million they owe, I’ve got $146,000 reimbursed,” he told The Epoch Times on July 7.

“How much operating capital do you have to pay these guys? I don’t have very damn much. We can’t afford to pay these gentlemen.”

Coe said getting Garrison in could be a “huge game-changer” for the state.

“Let Kinney County be the model, let them see what can be done when we put our mind to it. Instead of rolling over playing dead, let’s be proactive,” he told The Epoch Times.

“Either way, it’s going to cost us money—whether they get over here and live for the rest of their lives on welfare and Medicaid and everything else—or we stop them here.”

Coe said the inner cities, including in Austin and Dallas, have issues with drugs and violence that stems from the border. “So if we stop it here, we save them up there.”

Kinney County is finalizing a letter of intent to provide to Garrison, but it’s nonbinding and contingent on funding. County Judge Tully Shahan wants to move ahead, but is nervous about liability.

“Kinney County is going to be sticking its neck out big-time to hire private contractors,” Shahan said at an Aug. 2 meeting.

“We’ve got to cross that hurdle somehow,” he told representatives of Garrison.

Shahan said he’d feel “more protected liability-wise” if the state Department of Public Safety was involved, but the county has been “waiting on the governor’s office” to get more resources and “hasn’t received any help yet,” so they’re moving in the direction of the private contractors.

“State officials need to realize that this crisis has surpassed that of a law enforcement issue,” Smith told The Epoch Times on Aug. 9. “The solution will have to include aspects of a military operation I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 15

On the border The New Wild West

With limited to zero consequences, illegal aliens have no reason to give up and go home—they know they’ll get through eventually. and the manpower that entails.”

Smith said he’s not averse to militias coming in, if need be.

“If it wasn’t for militias, we wouldn’t have a country today. The militias were what originally freed us from the British crown. Militias was what freed Texas from the Mexican government,” he said.

“Militias have a bad rap. But I think by and large, they’re formed by the people, by the citizens, and they volunteer to help governments and their own citizens in times of trouble.”

Meanwhile, Sheriff Coe has asked the state to give him 42 National Guard troops. He wants to set them up in key locations in the county as listening post-observation post personnel to report anything that they see or hear.

“Not only along the river, but some places inte16 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

rior, where I know they [illegal aliens] are walking through. And that gives us a better feel of what’s going on,” Coe told The Epoch Times on Aug. 10.

“But I don’t think I’m going to get them.”

He said it’s unlikely the state will cede control of the National Guard troops, but that DPS is working on getting more of them deployed throughout the region.

“We’ll give it some time. We’ll see what happens,” Coe said.

On July 27, Abbott issued an executive order for the Texas National Guard to assist DPS in arresting illegal aliens on state charges, including for criminal trespassing, smuggling, and human trafficking.

State troopers have started delivering vanloads of illegal aliens to the Kinney County Sheriff’s Office to be charged with criminal trespass after picking them up off ranches. In the last two weeks, more than 170 charges have been filed.

“DPS has been working hard on conducting more ground operations on the ranches in Kinney County ... where probably 80 percent of the illegal trafficking is occurring,” Smith said.

“They’re having some success in their arrests, but are very limited in the manpower they can deploy on the ground.”

Although the state is doing more and Coe is getting direct help from Galveston deputies, Smith is confident they’ll also employ Garrison in some form.

391 Commission Using a more obscure approach but with potential major results, Kinney County, Uvalde County,

A group of Venezuelans waits to be picked up by Border Patrol after illegally crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into Del Rio, Texas, on June 3, 2021.

On the border The New Wild West

and the city of Uvalde have joined forces to create a subregional planning commission under Section 391 of the Texas code. It’s a statute unique to Texas that gives small regions the teeth to force direct coordination with state agencies and their resources.

It sounds academic, but the first major win for a 391 commission was a David and Goliath affair that stopped the construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor—a superhighway and related ecosystem that was to connect Chinese-run ports in Mexico to Canada. It was also known as the NAFTA Superhighway.

American Stewards of Liberty, a nonprofit organization, was instrumental in the 2009 win against the superhighway and the organization’s chief executive and executive director are husband and wife duo Dan and Margaret Byfield, respectively. The Byfields are helping Kinney and Uvalde navigate their way through their new commission, which was officially formed on Aug. 2 and named the Texas Border Subregional Planning Commission The commission will use the overriding provision in the statute that allows regions to “join and cooperate to improve the health, safety, and general welfare of their residents.”

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, the chairman of the commission, said he thinks it’ll be “invaluable” because “small rural counties ... get neglected.”

“I think it’s got the potential to be really effective because you can actually hold a state agency accountable and we don’t have to go to Austin.

They’ve got to come to us. They’ve got to talk to us,” McLaughlin told The Epoch Times on Aug. 9.

Uvalde has been beleaguered all year by a huge increase in illegal alien smuggling, vehicle pursuits, and bailouts—which is when a vehicle stops and the illegal aliens jump out and scatter to avoid capture.

“We had car chases Friday, we had car chases Saturday, we had car chases Sunday—and bailouts in the community,” McLaughlin said. He’s so fed up, he’e ready to shut down Highway 90 to force attention to the issue.

McLaughlin said the extra Texas state troopers deployed to Uvalde have been a “tremendous help.”

“I can only imagine the number of chases, and the number of bailouts we’d have had in our community without the DPS. That number would probably be triple or quadruple. So I’m very thankful,” he said.

As with Kinney County, though, jail space in Uvalde is perpetually at capacity.

McLaughlin wants to use the commission to cut through the red tape with TDEM, with the jail standards commission, and with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE).

“You have the governor’s office saying that TDEM is going to help you, and the jail standard commission is waiving things, and TCOLE is going to make it easier for you to bring [retired law enforcement]

people back. And that’s not the case right now,” he said.

“I’m almost of the mindset that it’s time to call for a state militia. Because law enforcement is overwhelmed, the federal government’s doing nothing, and so it’s going to be up to us to take care of our state and take care of our citizens.”

Margaret Byfield said although the issues and agencies are different from the superhighway, the 391 commission should work in a similar fashion.

“The scenario is very similar here, where the local governments know exactly what they need to secure the border. And the state, which has the responsibility to do that, is not providing them those resources,” she said.

“So it’s a little bit different, but in a lot of ways, it still is the same problem and can still get resolved through the same process.”

She said the counties should also be able to access TDEM funding they need upfront, which could allow for the use of private security contractors without relying on donations.

The next step for the commission is to formulate and prioritize its needs and then contact the relevant agency decision-makers to meet.

Slow Pace Kinney County leadership is united in trying to implement solutions to what they’ve declared is an emergency, but they’re frustrated by the glacial pace it’s all unfolding.

Hunting season looms, and ranchers and residents provide daily evidence that groups of illegal aliens are traversing the county unvetted and unchecked.

And while the different levels of government go through their machinations, many residents of Kinney County remain armed and frustrated. ■

Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe (L) and Galveston Constable Jimmy Fullen outside the sheriff’s office in Brackettville, Texas, on Aug. 16, 2021.

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 17

IN FOCUS Tropical Storm Henri MEMBERS OF THE New Market Volunteer Fire Company perform a search amid floods caused by Tropical Storm Henri, in Helmetta, N.J., on Aug. 22, 2021. Tropical Storm Henri hit the East Coast on Aug. 22, knocking out power to thousands of Americans, grounding scores of flights, and bringing record rainfall.

PHOTO BY TOM BRENNER/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

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CCP VIRUS

US Involvement in Wuhan Lab A series of events shows how US was involved in the funding and research of the controversial lab ✒ Text by Jeff Carlson & Hans Mahncke

20 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in Washington on June 30, 2020.

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I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 21

S

CHINESE VIROLOGIST Shi Zhengli, inside the P4 laboratory in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 23, 2017.

of the global CCP virus pandemic, the United States has publicly denied involvement with the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology. A closer look, however, reveals how U.S. officials privately scrambled to respond to questions about America's involvement in funding and research at the lab. ince t he ou t br ea k

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Timeline US Involvement in Wuhan Lab HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The P4 laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China.

JAN. 31, 2020

JAN. 31, 2020

6:20 p.m. EST

8:43 p.m. EST

An article is published in Science addressing concerns about experiments conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The article indirectly links to a 2015 Nature article detailing gain-of-function experiments conducted by Shi Zheng-Li, a director at the institute.

Shi’s research had been funded by Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Disease (NIAID).

JAN. 31, 2020

JAN. 31, 2020

9:46 p.m. EST

9:47 p.m. EST

9:49 p.m. EST

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JAN. 31, 2020

Fauci forwards the 2020 Science article to John Mascola of NIAID.

The 2020 Science article is emailed to Fauci

by Greg Folkers of NIH. Fauci forwards Folkers’s email to multiple parties.

Fauci forwards the 2020 Science article to Jeremy Farrar, the head of a British nonprofit, and Kristian Andersen, a professor at Scripps Research.

Fauci forwards the 2020 Science article to Robert Kadlec at the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.

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JAN. 31, 2020

FEB. 1, 2020

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10:32 p.m. EST

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Andersen replies to Fauci’s email and acknowledges that features of the virus look potentially engineered. Earlier in the day, however, Andersen had sent a tweet rejecting Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) theory that the virus could have stemmed from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Fauci sends the 2015 Nature article to his deputy, Hugh Auchincloss. “Hugh: It is essential that we speak this AM. Keep your cell phone on. I have a conference call at 7:45 AM with Azar. It likely will be over at 8:45 AM. Read this paper as well as the e-mail that I will forward to you now. You will have tasks today that must be done. Thanks, Tony.”

NIAID

Thirty-five seconds later, Fauci emails Auchincloss the Science article: “As per my prior email.”

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I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 23

Wuhan Lab Timeline FEB. 1, 2020

FEB. 1, 2020

8:19 a.m. EST

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Fauci sends the 2015 Nature article to Lawrence Tabak of NIH. Fauci’s email is marked “IMPORTANT.”

10:34 a.m. EST

Farrar sends out a group email announcing a 2 p.m. conference call, along with an agenda setting out “desired outcomes” to be discussed “in total confidence.” Including Farrar, a total of 13 people are listed on the teleconference agenda.

FEB. 1, 2020

FEB. 1, 2020

11:47 a.m. EST

12:51 p.m. EST

Auchincloss responds to Fauci in a sepFauci responds to Auchincloss: “OK. arate email thread: “The paper you sent me says the experiments were performed before Stay tuned.” the gain of function pause but have since KEVIN DIETSCH/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES been reviewed and approved by NIH. Not sure what that means since Emily is sure that no Coronavirus work has gone through the P3 framework. She will try to determine if we have any distant ties to this work abroad.”

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FEB. 1, 2020

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2:00 p.m. EST

2:09 p.m. EST

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3:03 p.m. EST

A teleconference participant emails the other participants, "We need to talk about the backbone too, not just the insert?"

Farrar sends an email to 4 of the 13 individuals believed to be on the call, including Fauci: “Can I suggest we shut down the call and then redial in? Just for 5-10 mins?”

Fauci responds by email to Farrar only, “Yes.”

Approximate time of teleconference start.

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FEB. 1, 2020

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4:00 p.m. EST

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3:30 a.m. EST

Farrar sends an email back to Collins, with Fauci copied in: “We are altogether as you know! Conversations with you and Tony, and Patrick and others - always great working with you both.”

Fauci sends an email to Farrar: “Thanks, Jeremy. We really appreciate what you are doing here. Pleasure to work with you. Best, Tony.“

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Dutch virologist Ron Fouchier sends an email to unknown recipients, thanking Farrar for the “useful teleconference,” and includes a section titled “Ron’s notes.” (The section of notes spans more than two full pages and is completely redacted.)

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Wuhan Lab Timeline FEB. 1, 2020

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1:13 p.m. EST

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Fauci sends email to Tabak alerting him to teleconference meeting.

Marion Koopmans, who oversees a Dutch lab that was previously involved with gain-of-function experiments, sends an email to Farrar and copies in Fauci and other members of the call. (The body of Koopmans’s email is fully redacted.)

Farrar sends an email with the subject “Re: Teleconference” establishing the group’s teleconference.

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Fauci responds to Andersen’s email (about features of the virus appearing potentially engineered): “Thanks, Kristian. Talk soon on the call.“ BRIAN ONGORO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

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FEB. 1, 2020

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3:07 p.m. EST

Sometime after 3:07 p.m. EST

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Farrar appears to have rejoined the call, sending an email that reads, somewhat confusingly, “I have rejoined so a line is open if any help to rejoin.”

Teleconference call ends.

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Francis Collins, head of the National Institutes of Health, sends an email to Farrar referencing the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “Hi Jeremy, I can make myself available at any time 24/7 for the call with Tedros.

Just let me know. Thanks for your leadership on this critical and sensitive issue. Francis.“ SARAH SILBIGER/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Farrar sends a post-teleconference email: “There is clearly much to understand understand in this. This call was very helpful to hear some of our current understanding and the many gaps in our knowledge.” (A large redaction follows.) Farrar closes with, “I hope that is a reasonable approach, please send any thoughts or suggestions.”

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Farrar responds to Fouchier: “Thanks Ron.” (The following paragraph is redacted. It's followed by, “Thoughts on that very welcome.”)

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British biologist Andrew Raumbaut sends an email to the teleconference group: “Dear Jeremy, Ron and all, Thanks for inviting me on call yesterday." (The rest of the large paragraph is redacted.)

He signs off, “Best, Andrew.”

Farrar responds to Raumbaut and copies in the teleconference group: “This is a very complex issue.

I will: [Long para​​PAULPALADIN/SHUTTERSTOCK graph redacted]."

Farrar closes his email by advising the participants to take the “complex issue” offline. Farrar also suggests the formation of a new group: “I suggest we don't get into a further scientific discussion here, but wait for that group to be established. Jeremy.”

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Wuhan Lab Timeline FEB. 2, 2020 4:48 a.m. EST

Collins sends an email regarding a potential meeting with WHO’s Tedros to Farrar, and copies in Fauci and Tabak: “I'm available any time today except 3:15 - 5:45 pm EST (on a plane) for a call to Tedros . Let me know if I can help get through his thicket of protectors.”

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FEB. 2, 2020

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4:48 a.m. EST

7:13 a.m. EST

Collins sends an email to Farrar and copies in Fauci and Tabak: “Thanks for forwarding these additional reflections from Mike and Bob.” (The rest of the paragraph is redacted.)

Collins sends an email to Farrar and copies in Fauci and Tabak: “Really appreciate us thinking through the options ... ” The next line is redacted.

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FEB. 3, 2020

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Fauci sends an email to Collins: “Francis: Do you have a minute for a quick call? Tony.”

Tedros publicly states, “[We must] combat the spread of rumours & misinformation.”

ZeroHedge is banned by Twitter.

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White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Kelvin Droegemeier requests that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) “help determine the origins of 2019-nCoV.” OFFICIAL PHOTO BY THE WHITE HOUSE

FEB. 4, 2020

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FEB. 8, 2020

Andrew Pope of NASEM writes to the participants: “Plans have changed in terms of our product. Instead of a ‘Based on Science’ web posting, we are now developing a letter that will be signed by the 3 Presidents of our 3 Academies.”

Despite the opposing public stance taken one day later by NASEM, Daszak privately circulates a letter dismissing laboratory origins as a conspiracy theory. The letter is published in The Lancet on Feb. 19, 2020.

NASEM sends a response to the White House’s Droegemeier, noting that the NASEM had consulted leading experts who stated that additional data were needed to determine the origin and evolution of the virus.

Farrar initiates another conference call that is held on a Wellcome Line. (It is not known what was discussed on this call.)

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Wuhan Lab Timeline FEB. 2, 2020

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Farrar sends an email to Fauci and Collins, and copies in Tabak, with a link to a ZeroHedge article: “Tedros and Bernhard have apparently gone into conclave .... they need to decide today in my view. If they do prevaricate, I would appreciate a call with you later tonight or tomorrow to think how we might take forward . Meanwhile .... https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/coronavirus-contains-hiv-insertions-stoking-fears-overartificially-created-bioweapon.” ZeroHedge would be banned one day later by Twitter, on Feb. 3, 2020.

Fauci responds to Farrar and Collins, and copies in Tabak: “Jeremy: Sorry that I took so long to weigh in on your e-mails with Francis and me. I was on conference calls.” (This is followed by a large paragraph redaction.)

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FEB. 3, 2020

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A same-day meeting is organized by the National Academies of Sciences. Fauci gives a 10-minute presentation. Internal emails suggest that there was significant internal debate following the formal meeting on the official response to Droegemeier’s request.

Andersen responds to Daszak and the expert group: “The main crackpot theories going around at the moment relate to this virus being somehow engineered with intent and that is demonstrably not the case. Engineering can mean many things and could be done for either basic research or nefarious reasons, but the data conclusively show that neither was done.”

NASEM response is also shaped

by Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist who suggests: “1. I wouldn’t mention binding sites here. If you start weighing the evidence there’s a lot to consider for both scenarios. 2. I would say ‘no evidence of genetic engineering’ full stop.”

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FREDHUTCH.ORG

FEB. 16, 2020

Andersen’s “Proximal Origin” article, claiming that the virus has natural origins, is published online.

This same paper would also be published in Nature on March 17, 2020.

FEB. 19, 2020 The Lancet publishes a letter claiming that the coronavirus originated in wildlife and condemned theories of a non-natural origin as conspiracy theories that “do nothing but create fear, rumor and prejudice”. It would later be revealed that co-author Daszak orchestrated the letter.

The Lancet fails to note his conflict of interest.

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28 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

IN FOCUS Sworn In NEW YORK CHIEF JUDGE Janet DiFiore swears in Kathy Hochul (R) as New York governor during a ceremony at the state Capitol in Albany on Aug. 24, 2021. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo handed over the reins of the nation's fourth most populous state to Hochul, his lieutenant governor and a fellow Democrat, who became New York's first ever female governor.

PHOTO BY HANS PENNINK/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 29

Blood D

Behind the rapid takeover providing 'all support' the

30 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

A Taliban fighter sits inside an Afghan National Army vehicle along the roadside in Laghman Province on Aug. 15, 2021.

PHOTO BY -/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Diplomacy

r of Afghanistan, the CCP is e Taliban needs ✒ Text by Venus Upadhayaya

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 31

World Blood Diplomacy

A

Taliban fighters sit on a vehicle along the street in Jalalabad Province in Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021.

took over Kabul on Aug. 15, both the Chinese regime and the Taliban have said that they look forward to friendship with each other.

The Chinese however have come short of recognizing the Taliban as the legitimate rulers, whereas the Taliban have said that China can contribute to Afghanistan’s development.

32 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

A FTER THE TA LIBA N TOOK OV ER Kabul on Aug.

15, both the Chinese regime and the Taliban said they looked forward to building a friendship with each other. The Chinese regime, however, has come short of recognizing the Taliban as the legitimate rulers, whereas the Taliban has said that China can contribute to Afghanistan’s development.

While reports continue to come of the Taliban conducting door-to-door searches and killing people, including journalists and women, the Taliban spokesperson has been giving interviews offering amnesty, women’s rights, and media freedom. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, in a press conference on Aug. 19, seemed to support the Taliban narrative, saying the “Afghan Taliban will not repeat the history of the past and now they are more clear-eyed and rational.”

A source has confirmed to The Epoch Times that the Taliban, since its takeover, has been conducting door-to-door searches for intellectuals and journalists.

Days before the Taliban took over the capital, an Epoch Times Kabul-based source said on condition of anonymity that in the month of June alone, 51 targeted killings by “unknown men” were reported around the country.

The Taliban hasn’t been taking credit for most

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f t e r t h e ta l i b a n

World Blood Diplomacy

of the targeted killings, which are of civilians, since the U.S.–Taliban peace deal was signed in February 2020. The deal limits the kinds of attacks the terrorists can conduct, and the Taliban strategy of not taking credit for the assassinations is linked to peace-talk diplomacy, according to a report in January by news website Gandhara.

In any case, reports of Taliban violence haven’t deterred the Chinese regime from working with the Taliban. Experts say the regime has intensified contact with the Taliban after Aug. 15 and that preparations are in full swing for a marriage of convenience.

Srikanth Kondapalli, professor in Chinese studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, said China is “providing international support to the Taliban and possibly intelligence and logistics support against the United States,” and that “by doing so, it wants to further humiliate the United States and contribute to its decline in the region.”

“In the short term, China is likely to provide all support to the Taliban to overrun Afghanistan and form a stable government,” he said. China is in touch with the Taliban through its own military links as well as Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), he said.

On Aug. 18, China’s Foreign Ministry stated that it had not yet officially recognized the Taliban as ruling Afghanistan, and that recognition would come after a government is formed.

China is likely to provide ‘all support’ to the Taliban to form a government.

History of CCP–Taliban Friendship

LI RAN/XINHUA VIA REUTERS

The relationship between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Taliban can be traced back to the 1970s when the Chinese military intelligence trained the mujahideen in their fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, Kondapalli said.

“According to Gen. Xiong Guangkai (ex PLA deputy chief of general staff), hundreds of Chinese trainers provided training, arms—AK-47s and Red Arrow missiles—to the mujahideen in Xinjiang and other contiguous areas in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In the post-Soviet years, China consolidated its relations with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, specifically with the Hekmatyar group prior to the 9/11 events,” he said.

Reports of contacts run deeper, as China paid the Taliban for captured, unexploded, and even detonated U.S. arms. An October 2001 Guard-

Chinese state councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, political chief of Afghanistan's Taliban, on July 28, 2021.

ian report claimed that China paid bin Laden several million dollars to access an unexploded American cruise missile.

About a year before, at the end of 2000, the U.N. Security Council proposed sanctions on the Taliban to force it to close bin Laden’s terrorist training camps located on its territory, but the People’s Republic of China abstained from the vote. Instead, it sent military personnel to support the Taliban immediately after the United States began airstrikes in Afghanistan.

“China’s ambassador to Pakistan engaged [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar with the proposal not to aid the Uyghurs, [in exchange for] protection at [the Security Council] for the Taliban.

Post 911, China continued its links with the Taliban and its supporter the ISI of Pakistan, and articulated the view that the Kabul government should be broad-based,” meaning the Taliban should be given positions in the government, Kondapalli said.

Additionally, in 2004, Chinese intelligence agencies used shell companies in financial markets around the world to help bin Laden raise funds and launder money, according to a report published by the Association for Asian Research.

Asked about media reports on China’s close contacts with the Taliban, a Chinese spokesperson denied them in a press conference I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 33

in August 2001.

However, China’s interest in Afghanistan has long been known. “China’s involvement in Afghanistan has been primarily to secure access to Afghan minerals and other resources; to help its ally Pakistan avoid encirclement by India; and to reduce the Islamist militant threat to China itself,” Kenneth Katzman and Clayton Thomas wrote in a 2017 paper published by the Congressional Research Service.

Filmmaker Brent E. Huffman said that the regime is aiming for unfettered access to Af34 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

Stranded Afghan nationals arrive to return to Afghanistan at the Pakistan–Afghanistan border crossing point in Chaman, Pakistan, on Aug. 16, 2021.

ghanistan’s resources, now that the Taliban is in power. Huffman directed the widely acclaimed documentary “Saving Mes Aynak,” about a 5,000-year-old Buddhist site that sits on a copper mine near Kabul.

Chinese state-owned mining Company MCC bought the mining rights at Mes Aynak for $100 billion in 2007, he said. The mine is located in Logar Province in an area close to Taliban strongholds.

“In the past, the Taliban have attacked Mes Aynak with rockets and landmines. In 2018,

World Blood Diplomacy

Passengers ride in a newly built Orange Line Metro Train, a metro project planned under the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, a day after an official opening in the eastern city of Lahore, Pakistan, on Oct. 26, 2020.

In the short term, China is likely to provide all support to the Taliban to overrun Afghanistan and form a stable government.

Srikanth Kondapalli professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University

an Afghan archaeologist was killed when his vehicle hit a landmine when he arrived at the site,” Huffman told The Epoch Times.

The Afghan archeologists working at the site were constantly threatened by the Taliban, he said, and now after Aug. 15, they fear for their lives.

“China hopes to partner with the Taliban to mine at Mes Aynak without restrictions related to protecting the environment, human rights, and cultural heritage,” he said.

Huffman said that when China begins to dig

TRILLIONDOLLAR MINERALS Afghanistan’s vast untapped mineral resources is estimated at $1 trillion, including the rare earth minerals whose supply chains China predominates.

under the Taliban’s protection at the open-pit copper mine in Mes Aynak, it will destroy a priceless world heritage forever.

The value of Afghanistan’s mineral resources is estimated at $1 trillion, including the rare-earth minerals whose supply chains China predominates.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Chunying said in a press conference on Aug. 17 that the CCP “maintained contact and communication with the Afghan Taliban on the basis of fully respecting Afghanistan’s sovereignty and the will of all factions in the country, and played a constructive role in promoting the political settlement of the Afghan issue.”

Future for CCP–Taliban Relations Frank Lehberger, a sinologist and a senior research fellow with India-based Usanas Foundation, told The Epoch Times in an email I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 35

World Blood Diplomacy

China supports the Taliban ‘to further humiliate the United States.’

36 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

Stack of papers filled with details of Afghan residents wishing to leave the country inside a Humvee in front of the British and Canadian embassies in Kabul on Aug. 19, 2021, after the Taliban's military takeover of Afghanistan.

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that the relationship between the Afghan Taliban and the CCP will be like a marriage of convenience, but the CCP will try to portray it as a close strategic partnership.

“The CCP needs a relatively stable Afghanistan for its BRI [Belt and Road Initiative] plans. The Taliban could deliver this if they will not engage in a protracted civil war inside Afghanistan with genocidal acts against Shiite or Turkmen minorities, all of which would draw in armed intervention by the Turks or the Iranians,” Lehberger said, “and if the Taliban do not follow their expansive reflexes in trying to grab land or wholesale destabilize neighboring pro-Moscow regimes in Central Asia (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, etc.) ... which would provoke Putin.”

He added that the Taliban is likely to bend over backward to accommodate the wishes of the CCP in some scenarios.

“As long as the CCP leadership quickly pays the amounts of foreign currencies or provides all the infrastructure investments that the Afghanistan-Taliban want, and as long as the CCP does not obstruct the now growing export trade of illicit narcotics from Taliban controlled Afghanistan to Europe (which benefits the Afghanistan-Taliban and helps weaken the so-called infidels in Europe), then the Taliban will be ‘nice’ to China,” he said.

In this scenario, the Taliban will ignore how the CCP treats Muslims inside China and will chase away the remaining Uyghur or other Muslim separatists within Afghanistan’s territory and on its borders near the Wakhan corridor that borders Xinjiang Province in China, according to Lehberger.

“But if the CCP is unwilling or unable to provide the expected finances in time, or if China does anything that does not please the Taliban, then the Taliban will very fast bite the Chinese hands that feed them,” he said.

Ahmad Rashid Salim, a best-selling author, community leader, and aca-

Buildings at the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center, believed to be a reeducation camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, north of Kashgar in China's northwestern Xinjiang region, on June 2, 2019.

demic in California who researches and teaches on topics in the fields of Islamic studies, Farsi literature, and Afghanistan, said that China’s announcement that it will work with the Taliban should alarm the world.

“China is known for its repressive system and human rights abuses— recently related to the encampment, torture, and disappearance of Uyghur Muslims and erasure of their culture and heritage,” Salim told The Epoch Times.

“As long as the ruling regime allows for Chinese companies to exploit the resources, China does not care what they do to the population or how oppressive their rule is.” ■

Environmental Warriors Cleanup Campaign

Donna Adam Cleans Up and Gives Back

A

By Nathan Worcester

“Serving locally helps you think about your own neighborhood, and how you can help where you are.”

Donna Adam founder, Clean Up—Give Back

PHOTO COURTESY OF DONNA ADAMS

s a middle-schooler, Donna Adam’s experience on a cleanup campaign taught her that nature should be treated with respect.

“I knew at that point that I would never litter again,” she said.

But Adam’s recent service helping the environment started with a World War I memorial in a forest preserve.

“I would see so much garbage in front of it, a place that was supposed to honor people who had died,” she said. “I would just want to clean that memorial up every day.”

Adam was inspired to start a volunteer organization called Clean Up-Give Back.

“I happened to be in a transition between jobs. I decided I would just form a group and see if I could get volunteers to come out,” she said.

She thought her first cleanup, organized in only two days, would draw maybe 10 people. To her surprise, 27 volunteers showed up.

“I said, ‘There really is a response to this,’” she said.

That was in early 2018. Since then, Clean Up-Give Back has taken off, organizing numerous cleanup opportunities for companies, churches, and other groups.

In 2020 alone, it was responsible for 62 community cleanups with 906 volunteers, removing 24,957 pounds of trash and debris from parks, rivers, forest preserves, and other sites across Chicagoland. Unlike many other organizations, they have continued operating during the pandemic, since volunteers working outside could remain physically distant from each other. The group says they’re on pace to beat those numbers in 2021.

“I’m thankful that the community has responded the way that they have,” she said.

Adam was granted the 2020 Governor’s Volunteer Service Award, the state of Illinois’s top commendation for volunteerism.

Adam says the organization’s Flexible Service Programs, along with its reliability, are key factors in its success.

People can sign up to volunteer for just a few hours, rather than committing to a long-term volunteer position.

“You get the instant gratification, because you see what impact you’ve had in an area,” she said.

The Flexible Service Programs allow people in states across the country to complete service for school, work, or the courts.

According to Adam, Clean Up-Give Back tries to find opportunities near where prospective volunteers live, and not hours away in unfamiliar places.

“When young kids are volunteering, we would like to pair that cleanup with something they are very familiar with, like, ‘Let’s go clean up by the local post office, or the police station, or the library’—something they see every day,” she said.

Adam and her organization have also focused on cleaning up Chicago’s East Garfield Park community, a few miles from the city’s downtown on its West Side.

“We’ve probably had 10 major cleanups in that area,” Adam said. “East Garfield Park has a lot of trash in their environment. ... You can find trash almost every step of the way.”

“We’re down there helping an area of Chicago that really is the most in need,” she said. “When you actually go out and help in an area, it really does make you feel more connected.”

Another campaign that means a lot to the group is its annual Des Plaines Riverbank Community Cleanup, which focuses on eight to 10 sites along the waterway. She said her group removed 2,300 pounds of trash during last year’s cleanup, thanks to the efforts of 124 volunteers.

“This year, we got 1,800 pounds of trash and debris,” she said. “We’re really glad about the impact that we’re making.”

Adam says her own attitude can be summed up by what she tells the kids who volunteer with her: “Think globally and serve locally.”

“Serving locally helps you think about your own neighborhood, and how you can help where you are,” she said.

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 37

38 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

ANGELA MARIE WULBRECHT, pictured with daughter Gabriella, suffered a severe reaction after her COVID-19 vaccination that has left her unable to work. She hopes the federal government will create a compensation program that pays for damages, medical bills, and lost wages to people who can demonstrate they suffered a serious COVID-19 vaccine injury.

PHOTO BY VERA FRANCES PHOTOGRAPHY

Federal Vaccine Program Hasn’t Helped Those

Whose Lives Were Altered

by COVID-19 Shot Text by Arthur Allen

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I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 39

Nation Vaccines

A

jumped at the first chance to get a COVID-19 vaccine, driving three hours from her Santa Rosa, California, home to a mass-vaccination site on Jan. 19. Twelve minutes after her Moderna shot, she stumbled into the paramedic tent with soaring blood pressure and a racing heartbeat. And so began a calvary of severe fatigue, brain fog, imbalance, and other symptoms that are still with her eight months later. ngel a m a r ie w ulbr ech t

W U LBR ECHT, 46 , H A D BE E N A N U R SE

for 23 years before the shot. She was healthy, ate a vegan diet, and was an accomplished salsa dancer. Since January, she’s had to leave her job and missed out on many activities with her husband and 12-year-old daughter, Gabriella. She has spent about $35,000 on out-of-pocket medical bills, despite having insurance.

“I

wanted to get vaccinated as soon as I could to help fight the pandemic,” said Wulbrecht, who still supports the vaccination campaign. Her husband got his shots despite her reaction, and Gabriella was scheduled to get her first dose on Aug. 18. “But it would help those who are hesitant if they took care of those of us who got injured.”

The options are slim for people who suffer rare life-altering injuries after a COVID-19 shot—a problem whose significance has grown as states and the federal government increasingly ponder vaccination mandates.

A federal program compensates people experiencing vaccine injuries, but not injuries from COVID-19 vaccines—not yet, anyway.

Such injuries are rare, but “if you’re going to take one for the team, the

40 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

team has to have your back,” said Katharine Van Tassel, a vaccine law expert at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland. “That’s a moral imperative.”

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hirty-five years ago, Congress created the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, known as the vaccine court, for children hurt by routine immunizations administered as a condition of school entry—“injured recruits in the war on infectious disease,” as Georgetown University bioethicist LeRoy Walters once described them.

Since it began operations in 1988, the vaccine court has paid more than $4 billion to over 8,000 families who could provide a “preponderance of evidence” that vaccines against diseases such as measles and pertussis hurt their kids. The court also covers vaccine injuries in pregnant women, and from the flu vaccine. But it doesn’t cover the aftereffects of COVID-19 vaccines.

A smaller federal program, the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program, addresses illnesses resulting from drugs or vaccines administered during a public health emergency, such as the

COVID-19 pandemic.

But that program requires evidence that’s harder to pin down, does not pay attorney fees, and rules by administrative fiat, while the vaccine court has judges. The countermeasures program has yet to pay a cent to anyone hurt by a COVID-19 vaccine, and its largely invisible decisions are “an inscrutable enigma,” said Brian Abramson, an expert on vaccine law.

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avid Bowman, a spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Department’s Health Resources & Services Administration, said the countermeasures program had a total of seven staff members and contractors and was seeking to hire more. He declined to answer questions about how COVID-19 vaccine claims could be handled in the future.

In June, a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) introduced legislation to address problems with the original vaccine court, including a two-year backlog of cases. That bill would

also increase the pain and suffering or death payments, to people who can prove an injury, from $250,000 to $600,000.

A spokesperson for Doggett said he hopes the bill—not currently attached to a larger package moving through Congress—would eventually allow COVID-19 vaccine-injured patients to get compensation through the vaccine court.

But that’s far from guaranteed.

I

n general, it is very difficult to prove a vaccine caused an injury that appears post-vaccination, since the ailments can be coincidental. But the rare vaccine injury can devastate a person’s health and financial resources.

Wulbrecht, whose care has included five ambulance trips, each billed for $3,000, filed a claim in February with the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program. She got a note acknowledging her claim but hasn’t heard further from the program.

She’s in a Facebook group created for people reporting grievous COVID-19 vaccine-related neurological issues. It was launched

by Dr. Danice Hertz, a retired gastroenterologist in Santa Monica, California, who has been diagnosed post-vaccination with mast cell activation syndrome, a rare condition in which part of the immune system goes haywire.

H

ertz got her first Pfizer-BioNTech shot on Dec. 23, shortly after the Food and Drug Administration authorized the vaccine. Within 30 minutes, she suffered terrible numbness and pain in her

face and tongue and “felt vibrations going through my whole body,” she said.

More than 90 percent of the 150 people in the Facebook group are women, Hertz said. She’s careful to keep what she terms anti-vaccine “riffraff” off the list, but she said many of the injured people have been frustrated at being unable to get a diagnosis or find doctors who understand the nature of their injuries.

Talk of vaccine injuries is sometimes muted in public health circles because of reluctance to feed the anti-vaccine movement and its claims of vaccine injury, ranging from infertility to magnetism to microchips secretly implanted by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

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ut rare reactions like the ones Hertz and Wulbrecht report are scattered through the vaccine literature and often attributed to a phenomenon called “molecular mimicry,” in which the immune system responds to an element in the vaccine by attacking similar-looking human proteins.

Guillain-Barré syndrome, or GBS, is caused by an immune attack on the nervous system in reaction to a vaccination or a viral infection. It has been reported after influenza shots and the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

Hertz and others have been in contact with Dr. Avindra Nath, chief of clinical medicine at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, whose specialty is the study of immune-modulated neurological illness. Nath told KHN he was studying some of the patients but hadn’t confirmed their illnesses were caused by a COVID-19 vaccine.

“We have to find these answers, but they aren’t easy to come by,” Nath said. “I know these reactions are rare, because there were 36,000 NIH employees vaccinated against COVID and, if it was common, I could study it here. But I don’t have a single NIH employee” who experienced it.

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egardless of how common the reactions are, vaccine law specialists worry about the impact of a failure to help those hurt by shots administered before the products gain full FDA approval, which could come this fall.

Congress created the vaccine court to keep pharmaceutical companies from abandoning production of common childhood vaccines by protecting them from damaging lawsuits, while at the same time offering support for kids hurt by a vaccine.

The Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program, however, arose as part of the 2005 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, and was pushed through to shield drug companies from lawsuits over products like the anthrax and smallpox vaccines, which had a relatively high rate of dangerous side effects.

COVID-19 vaccines shouldn’t be in the same category, Van Tassel said.

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he PREP Act is likely to set an almost insurmountable burden of proof for injury compensation, she said.

Rewards depend on “compelling, reliable, valid medical and scientific evidence,” which doesn’t exist for COVID-19 vaccines because they are so new.

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ut cause and effect appear clear to women like Brianne Dressen, a Saratoga Springs, Utah, preschool teacher who was bedridden for months with neurological symptoms that began after she got an AstraZeneca shot in a clinical trial last November.

“Vaccines are an important piece of the puzzle to get us through the pandemic,” she told KHN. “But some people are going to draw the short straw with any drug or vaccine, and we need to take care of them.”

This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 41

IN FOCUS Vaccine Mandate Protest

PEOPLE WALK THROUGH the Passage Pommeraye during a national day of protest against compulsory COVID-19 vaccination for certain workers and government mandates requiring vaccination to access most public places, in Nantes, France, on Aug. 14, 2021.

PHOTO BY SEBASTIEN SALOM-GOMIS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

42 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 43

Nation Pandemic Impact

Small Landlords Forced Out of Protacted moratoruums intended to protect renters are hurting small landlords who rely on the income

E

By Steven Kovac xtended rent moratoriums and the slow distribution of billions in federal rent assistance are driving many small landlords to

call it quits.

“Nobody wants to become a landlord anymore,” said Diane Baird, executive director of the Lake Erie Landlord Association, which represents landlords in northern Ohio, southern Michigan, and western Pennsylvania.

“And we have very few new people entering into the business.”

“Multiple landlords have told me they are selling out,” Jon Frickensmith, president of the South Wisconsin Landlord Association, told The Epoch Times. “They ask us how to get out of the business and how to get the tenants out of their houses. These are mom-and-pop operators, the kind of landlords that are willing to take tenants with bad credit or a criminal history. This will only add to the housing crisis.”

The vast majority of landlords in the United States are individuals, with most owning one or two rental houses.

In Michigan, more than $500 million in federal pandemic emergency assistance funds remain unspent, with thousands of applications for aid mired in state and municipal bureaucracies.

“Everyone in the process agrees the application process is flawed. The problems created by the system are intensified for private owners,” Greg Stremers, an attorney in Port Huron, Michigan, told The Epoch Times.

“Many property owners are selling off their properties, creating an even deeper shortage of rental properties. When I process an eviction, the tenants are having difficulty finding a new place to live, which is driving rents higher.”

44 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

Maricopa County constable Darlene Martinez serves residents with an eviction order in Phoenix, Arizona, in late 2020.

JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES

Nation Pandemic Impact

f Business

JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES

Stimulus Not Paying for Rentals Stremers said the system is “undeniably deficient,” pointing out that, of the $46 billion allocated by Congress in emergency rental assistance, only $3 billion has thus far been distributed to applicants nationwide by state and local agencies.

According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, states and municipalities have until Sept. 30 to disburse the funds or they may be reallocated.

The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eviction moratorium is set to expire on Oct. 3.

The National Equity Atlas estimates that landlords across the United States are owed more than $21 billion in overdue rent.

Don James, president of the Florida

Landlord Association in Coral Gables, with a beautiful, high-end rental home. believes the moratorium is detrimental His tenants moved in, along with six to renters as well as landlords. dogs and a potbelly pig! The case came “We as landlords cannot enforce our before a liberal judge. It was delayed rental contracts and, this being a seller’s forever. Ultimately, the landlord could market, [it] is forcing landlords to sell not get a writ to evict.” their properties. This is going to cause In Michigan, emergency rent assisshrinking of rental facilities, thus hurttance checks for up to 12 months of back ing renters,” he said. rent, and even three months of future Mike Bodeis, president of the 450-mem- rent, are made out directly to the landber Port Huron Area Landlord Association lord for the benefit of qualifying tenants, and owner of 40 rental houses, told The but the tenants must apply for the aid.

Epoch Times: “It’s a myth that 3.6 million While that may sound like a win-win Americans may soon be made homeless. proposition, Stremers said that only a Two-thirds of them could be paying their small percentage of tenants apply. rent, but are not because they choose not “In fact,” Stremers said, “even the to. They didn’t choose to tenants typically don’t pay their rent or utility bills apply, and if the owner with all the stimulus money wants them to, we have "We as they received. to encourage them. The landlords To illustrate, Bodeis said: vast majority of the cannot “In one eviction, in which I tenants rarely show up personally participated, we for the eviction pretrial, enforce took six flatscreen TVs out and rarely submit the our rental of the house. It’s all about proper CDC paperwork contracts priorities.” to start the moratorium and, this President of the Flint, process.”

Michigan-area Genesse Included in the paperbeing a Landlord Association, Ed work is a requirement seller’s Constable, said that the for the tenant to provide market, [it] rent moratorium has had a government-issued little effect on some of the identification card. is forcing members, but has been Stremers said the realandlords “devasting” for others. son for the card is that to sell their “Maybe a quarter of resi“under a prior federal properties." dential tenants have signed stimulus for renters to the eligibility affidavit for purchase homes, there Don James the emergency pandemic was fraud by the tenpresident, Florida Landlord Association in rent assistance,” Constable ants—the money went Coral Gables said. to tenants, who did not “Some instances can make the payments.” be horrible. One woman was in debt to Baird said that in the Lake Erie region, me for a year’s back rent. Rather than go “tenants are not signing up for help.” through the process, I ended up writing “They don’t seem to care about payher a check for one month’s rent. That’s ing their bills. They have no reason to what it took to finally get her out. After care. There are no consequences. The that experience, I have zero interest in government is letting them get away more residential rentals.” with it,” she said.

The terms of the emergency rent assisOne Wisconsin landlord stated in an tance application are supposed to preserve email: “I don’t know why the governthe right of a landlord to evict a tenant ment thinks landlords can afford to for committing a criminal act on the pay bills when not collecting rent, or premises, damaging property, threatenwhy we should be responsible for the ing the health and safety of other tenants, tenant’s inability to pay. I think they or violating building codes and health are taking advantage of the moratoriordinances, and for breach of contract um to not pay on time.” other than non-payment of rent.

“Everything depends on the judge,” Jannis Falkenstern contributed Constable said. “We had one landlord to this report.

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 45

World Nigeria

Risking All for Justice Lawyers in Nigeria defend Christians persecuted by authorities

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By Masara Kim os, nigeria— For embattled Christians in Nigeria’s Plateau state, the best hope for many is a civil rights attorney with a knack for cheating death.

Barrister Gyang Zi, 43, is no stranger to controversy in court or to danger in the northern Nigerian city of Jos. The attorney, who earns less than $5,000 annually, is among

46 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

254 lawyers in Plateau state using personal finances to fight on behalf of victims of violations, said Panmak Lere, the leader of the Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria (CLASFON) in Plateau state.

“The cases range from religious freedom cases for converts undergoing persecution; molestations and government recklessness; appeals against judgments or trials that are unjust or perGyang Zi in his verse, intervening for widows, office in Jos, orphans, indigents, inmates Nigeria. without legal representation, IDPs, as well as victims of injustice and religious violence,” Lere said.

Zi has won lawsuits for more than 500 victims of violations,

mostly against the Muslim-dominated Nigerian military, according to his partner, Solomon Dalyop.

“The latest was a suit between the Army and 28 villagers arrested over the disappearance of an Army general in September 2018,” Dalyop said.

“There was an attack in [Sept. 11] 2018 in Lopandet village, a Christian community on the outskirts of Jos, and 13 people were killed on the spot, while three people died in the hospital. The following day, one [Major] General [Idris] Alkali was reported missing, and a group of people from nowhere said it was the people of that community that killed the general.

“The army headquarters was moved completely to that village. People were arrested randomly from the street, from their houses and business locations.

Even journalists were arrested. There

TOP LEFT (LUIS TATO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES); PORTRAIT ( MASARA KIM/THE EPOCH TIMES); RIGHT (LUIS TATO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES)

A Christian Adara girl attends the Sunday service at Ecwa Church, Kajuru, Kaduna State, Nigeria, on April 14, 2019.

World Nigeria

were more than 60 [detainees]. Many had to flee from their homes, but Zi challenged the army authorities. He brought some of us in, and we kept writing to the general officer commanding the Third Division of the Nigerian army [in Jos] where they were detained.

“About 40 were later released, while 28 were arraigned before the State High Court, and we stood for them. The case is still ongoing, but by the grace of God, before he [Zi] handed the defense to the Christian Lawyers Federation of Nigeria (CLASFON), we filed several bail applications, and as of February this year, all of them were released.”

Zi recently hinted to friends of plans to sue local authorities over the killing of more than 70 people in northern Plateau under the watch of the military. The attacks from July 31 to Aug. 2 near Third Division headquarters of the Nigerian army were jointly carried out by soldiers and Fulani terrorists, which would be a risky case to try, Zi said, but “I don’t have any option.”

“Whether I like it or not, one day I will give way, one day I will die. The only thing that will speak for us when we leave this earth is our deeds,” he said.

“By the grace of God, I am over 40. I do not have any reason to back down from doing right simply because I am afraid of what will happen.”

The attorney had a close encounter with death during his own kidnapping last month.

The last thing on his mind on July 15, he says, as he neared his driveway in an urban neighborhood, was being kidnapped by killer bandits. But in an instant, life came at him fast.

It was 7 p.m., and he was driving home, just a stone’s throw from the state’s government house.

“I’d heard of many kidnap cases and prosecuted some, but never knew what it felt like to be in the hands of fierce-looking, gun-wielding terrorists in the middle of nowhere,” Zi told The Epoch Times.

“They were calling me by name.

“I got to the junction which is just by the fence of the government house. I saw two people with guns approaching me, so immediately I put the car in reverse gear. I was trying to check the rear to see if there was clearance to accelerate, and I saw two more people. So the car was in

"The only thing that will speak for us when we leave this earth is our deeds."

Gyang Zi civil rights attorney

the middle. At that point, I had no option but to stop, and they ordered me to come down from the car.

“They knew much about me, including my family and cars. In fact, they had my complete profile. They said, ‘Barrister, we’ve been sent to eliminate you, so you just have to cooperate with us.’

“They dragged me into a nearby corn farm and started whistling. We walked a little distance and a Golf 3 wagon came, and they ordered me in and blindfolded me. We drove for a long time and after the drive, I just found myself in the middle of the bush.

“They took me to some mountains and into a cave, where they planned to slaughter me and dispose of my body.”

Zi summoned all of his lawyerly skills to plead the case of his life.

“I pleaded that I had helped distressed people from their tribe and religion, which they confirmed by calling an old Fulani acquaintance in my phone contacts,” he said. “He was even the one that argued on my behalf. They talked on the phone in their dialect, and after about 24 hours, they told me they had been

paid N15 million ($72,810.78) to kill me and that I had a chance to buy back my life by refunding that money. We kept pleading until they agreed to slash the price to N8million ($19,436.86).”

Zi credits his friendship with the Fulani man for saving his life.

The trauma of being held captive by the terrorists nearly put the 43-year-old in a hospital bed following his release, but while in their custody, all that mattered to him was the human rights cases he had yet to complete, he said.

“For every second I was with them, it was like a year. I was just wondering what will happen. Even when they assured me that they wouldn’t harm me after talking to my friend, I was still wondering if they were just trying to calm me down and surprisingly execute me. It was a situation where you are looking at your life going right before you, and you cannot do anything. I was at their mercy.

“But while I was with them, all that crossed my mind was what would happen to the cases and the oppressed people of God,” he said. “I was confident that God will still bring up people to carry on, but still I was a bit worried that some things would suffer setbacks.” ■ Nigerian Police Officers and Adara leaders visit and patrol an area of destroyed and burned houses after a recent Fulani attack in the Adara farmers' village of Angwan Aku, Kaduna State, Nigeria, on April 14, 2019.

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 47

ANDERS CORR is a principal at Corr Analytics Inc., publisher of the Journal of Political Risk. He is an expert in political science and government.

Anders Corr

A New Afghanistan Strategy

The United States needs to have a harder and smarter strategy

48 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

The former director-general of ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence services, rightly said that “the ISI defeated America in Afghanistan, with America’s help.” It’s a true statement and one that America’s leadership must seriously contemplate.

What went wrong in Afghanistan was American strategy. We must get tougher and smarter. We must go to the roots of the problem, or we will die of a thousand cuts.

The Taliban won through Maoist tactics, perhaps learned from Chinese intelligence or allies. Taliban tactics included surrounding the cities from the countryside, and buying off political, military, and police leadership so that when the

The Taliban won through Maoist tactics, perhaps learned from Chinese intelligence or allies. signal came, most Taliban could walk into Kabul without a shot fired.

The speed and ease of the Taliban’s victory shocked and surprised the world.

But it needn’t have. The indicators of a corrupted officialdom in Kabul, and on military bases around the country, drunk on profits from Taliban opium networks, financial scams, and “bags of money” from Iran, according to former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, were there for all to see.

America had been too lax with Afghanistan’s leadership, who were often in it for themselves rather than for ideals such as democracy, human rights, rule of law, and religious tolerance. We looked the other way while the Taliban ran opium fields and trafficking networks that benefited corrupt Afghan leaders. America wanted to buy victory on the cheap, and without rocking the boat. It turned out to be the most ex-

pensive way, in blood and treasure. We failed because we were too soft, on drug trafficking and the corruption of Afghan officials, on the Taliban’s military and intelligence enablers in Pakistan, and on Pakistan’s enablers in Beijing.

Instead of fighting all of the above at 100 percent, we told our soldiers to walk on eggshells. We wanted to maintain trillions of dollars of U.S. investments in China, and our “allies” in Pakistan (which has, in fact, long been a Chinese ally). We paid Pakistan billions of dollars to allow the transport of materiel to our troops in Afghanistan when Pakistan should have pitched in itself. We paid millions more for their promises to secure their own illegal nuclear weapons so terrorists wouldn’t use them against us. Our aid to Pakistan peaked in 2010, the year before the drawdown started.

That’s called highway robbery. It’s giving in to terrorism.

America, with all of our idealism, now looks the sucker. We rightly want to bring peace, stability, democracy, and human rights to the world, and we were willing to pay for it as we remembered the alternatives, such as World War II. The United Nations was our answer to a world war never happening again. We tried through the U.N. to ensure that countries would never again take the territory of other countries, countries would respect the human rights of their populations, and never again commit genocide.

The fall of Kabul, and with it the stumbling of democratic ideals that America and allies attempted to build in Afghanistan, is a blow not only to America but to all freedom-loving people around the world. It indicates increased influence in Central Asia by China and the terrorist elements that the Chinese Communist Party covers for, including in Pakistan.

If America and our allies come back, and we must, we are going to have to come back swinging harder and smarter.

ILLUSTRATION BY BIBA KAJEVICH

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abul has fallen.

Twenty years after Sept. 11, 2001, when Osama Bin Laden orchestrated the deaths of almost 3,000 people in the United States and George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan to enforce the law against unrepentant terrorism by the Taliban and al-Qaeda, America’s mission in the country is coming to a humiliating end.

For now.

Americans, British, Australians, and Indians are scrambling to get out. But the airport in Kabul, where I contributed to the war effort for a year and a half from 2011 to 2013, is now impenetrable for the regular Afghans, including over 3 million peacefully religious Sufis, who fear massacre at the hands of extremist Taliban fighters in the street.

The Taliban is going door to door looking for foreigners. Thousands are “sheltering in place,” per the instructions of their home governments, rather than risk arriving at the airport before their time, and being engulfed by the surging Afghans who also wisely seek to escape the Taliban’s terrible brand of Sharia “justice.”

Afghans clinging to, and then falling, from a U.S. military cargo plane as it lumbered in a steep climb from the tarmac symbolized America’s retreat, and will doubtless be mocked in Beijing and Moscow. But like the shocking scenes of Americans jumping to their deaths from the Twin Towers, these lost lives are the fault of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, not America. They are the fault of authoritarian countries around the world, including China and Russia, as well as Pakistan, who have given financial, military, or diplomatic aid to the Taliban over the past 20 years.

Without that aid, without state support from abroad, the Taliban could never have “won” this war against America, its allies, and the idea of democracy.

DANIEL LACALLE, PH.D., is chief economist at hedge fund Tressis.

He holds the CIIA and master's in Economic Investigation and IESE.

Daniel Lacalle

50 Years of Monetary Insanity What the end of the gold standard means for our monatary system where there’s no real alternative to the U.S. dollar as a reserve, because the rest of the countries abandoned the monetary and fiscal orthodoxy at the same time, weakening their ability to be a world reserve alternative.

In the 1960s, any currency from a leading country could compete with the dollar if its gold reserves were sufficient. Today, none among the fiat currencies can compete with the dollar, either in financial capacity or as a reserve. The example of the yuan is paradigmatic. The Chinese economy is more than 17 percent of the world’s GDP and its currency is used in less than 4 percent of global transactions, according to the Bank for International Settlements.

A return to the gold standard may be unfeasible today given the size of the global monetary imbalance versus gold, which could create a giant financial crisis.

ILLUSTRATION BY FENG MEI

With the suspension of the gold standard, Nixon cemented and guaranteed the financial and monetary hegemony of the United States for the long term, while unleashing a global credit-fueled economy where financial risk disproportionately exceeds the real economy.

The defenders of the suspension of the gold standard contend that financial crises are shorter and that the global economy has strengthened in the period. However, it’s more than debatable to consider that massive debt expansion is the cause of progress.

Non-productive debt has soared and the tax wedge on citizens has elevated, while the severity of financial crises has also increased, which are always “solved” by adding more debt and more risk-taking.

A debt-fueled economy and massive money creation disproportionately benefit the first recipients of money and credit, which are government and the wealthy. This creates a larger problem for the middle classes and the poor to access better standards of living when asset prices are artificially inflated while real wages rise slower than the price of essential expenses, such as housing, health care, and utilities, while taxes rise.

A return to the gold standard may be unfeasible today given the size of the global monetary imbalance versus gold, which could create a giant financial crisis. But a Taylor-rulebased system in monetary policy that limits central bank balance sheet expansion, and a strict deficit and debt limit can be implemented if there’s a political will.

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 49

ILLUSTRATION BY BIBA KAJEVICH

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his year marks the 50th anniversary since President Richard Nixon suspended the convertibility of the U.S. dollar into gold. That began the era of a global fiat money debt-fueled economy. Since then, crises have been more frequent, but also shorter and always “solved” by adding more debt and printing more money.

The suspension of the gold standard was a catalyst to trigger massive global credit expansion and cement the position of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency, as it de facto substituted gold as the reserve for the main central banks.

The level of global debt has skyrocketed to more than 350 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and what’s mistakenly called “the financial economy,” which is the credit-based economy, has multiplied.

The gold standard imposed a limit on the monetary and fiscal voracity of governments, and suspending it unleashed an unprecedented push to increase indebtedness, and the perverse incentive for governments to pass on current imbalances to future generations.

By substituting gold for the U.S. dollar as a global reserve, the United States has been able to borrow and increase money supply massively without triggering hyperinflation because it exports its monetary imbalances to the rest of the world. Other currencies follow the same monetary expansion without the global demand that the U.S. dollar enjoys, so the rising imbalances always end up making those currencies weaker versus the greenback and the economies more dependent on the U.S. dollar.

This race to zero, pursued by most central banks, has also achieved a state

EMEL AKAN is White House economic policy reporter in Washington, D.C. Previously she worked in the financial sector as an investment banker at JPMorgan and as a consultant at PwC.

Economy

Inflation Stickier Than Anticipated

Companies raise prices in response to higher labor costs, fanning inflation further.

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.S. inflation showed some cooling off in July after posting large gains in prior months. Consumer prices rose at their slowest monthly pace since February, providing some relief to those in the “transitory” camp, who hold that this bout of inflation isn’t a long-term phenomenon.

But, inflation fears still linger. The year-on-year increase in consumer prices remained stubbornly high at 5.4 percent, the same as in June.

While it’s unclear when inflation could return to a level closer to its 2 percent long-term trend, economists are increasingly talking about a gradual slowdown in inflation in the months and quarters ahead.

In a recent note, Goldman Sachs economists state that current levels of inflation will prove transitory, although a rapidly tightening labor market poses a risk as it could “translate into more persistent inflation pressures down the road.”

A swift rebound in the economy and a tight labor supply have returned the upper hand to American workers.

Employers are competing to attract qualified candidates by raising wages and offering bonuses and other perks.

Companies are passing along these higher labor costs to consumers via price increases, hence adding to the inflationary pressures. And a record level of open job positions in the country suggests that businesses may continue to raise wages to attract people, which could in turn boost consumer prices further.

Meanwhile, optimism among U.S. small businesses is dipping as labor shortage and supply chain constraints continue to cripple their business operations. The NFIB Small Business Optimism survey in July showed that a record-high 49 percent of small firms struggled to find

50 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

While used car prices stabilized in July, rising only 0.2 percent over the month, they are still over 40 percent above their pre-COVID trend. And the yearly inflation for new vehicles stood at 6.4 percent in July, the largest gain in nearly four decades.

Persistent supply shortages have gone beyond the auto sector and affected prices of consumer electronics and shipping, as well.

How Sticky Is Inflation?

We’re going to head into a very high rent period in the next 10 years.

Ken McElroy, CEO, MC Companies

workers to fill open positions.

The survey also found that 52 percent of small business owners raised the prices of their goods and services to mitigate higher costs.

In addition, the COVID-19 Delta variant is deepening already substantial supply chain disruptions, putting pressure on prices. For example, setbacks in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Goldman Sachs, are delaying the normalization of car prices.

The semiconductor shortage amid the pandemic continues to hammer auto production worldwide. Nissan announced on Aug. 10 that it would close its large factory in Tennessee for two weeks because of computer chip shortages. More than a dozen factories in North America and Europe have halted or reduced operations in recent weeks.

The global scarcity of chips has tightened new and used vehicle inventories and pushed up prices this year. Prices of new and used vehicles have been on the rise for months, making them a major driver of inflation.

Inflation has turned into a major source of disagreement among economists, as they are divided over the key question of how long high inflation could stick around.

The Federal Reserve’s latest forecast shows that the inflation will be 3.4 percent this year, before settling back down to just over 2 percent in 2022 and 2023.

“The risk is that higher inflation may have a longer-than-expected ‘tail’ before normalizing, or perhaps a more enduring structural component,” Nanette Abuhoff Jacobson, global investment strategist at Hartford Funds, said in a report.

One area to watch closely, she said, is rents and shelter, the largest component in the consumer price index.

Rents dropped significantly during the pandemic across the country, but now they’re surging at a rapid pace, as more workers return to metro areas, boosting demand for rental apartments. A sustained increase in rents could lead to more persistent inflation, as price increases are hard to reverse.

“We’re going to head into a very high rent period in the next 10 years,” Ken McElroy, CEO of MC Companies, a real estate investment firm, said in an interview.

Soaring home prices are also pushing people to the rental market. If rents track home prices as in the past, then this could be “a big deal” for inflation, according to Jacobson.

FAN YU is an expert in finance and economics and has contributed analyses on China's economy since 2015.

Fan Yu

Follow BlackRock on China Strategy?

BlackRock wants investors to increase China exposure, should you follow?

B

lackRock, the world’s largest investment manager, with more than $9 trillion in assets under management, recently made a very contrarian call.

The investing giant argued that China is no longer an emerging market, and as such, investors need to boost their investments in Chinese stocks and bonds.

China is underrepresented in investors’ portfolios, Wei Li, chief investment strategist at BlackRock Investment Institute, told the Financial Times on Aug. 17.

BlackRock's latest bullish call on China follows a research report it issued in May, which also argued that the Chinese stocks and bonds allocation in global benchmark indices is too low. In that report, BlackRock said that global economic growth is becoming increasingly bipolar, led by the United States and China at opposite ends of that spectrum, and investors need exposure to both in almost equal measures.

It’s an especially contrarian view considering the recent pain surrounding Chinese stocks.

Goldman Sachs recently cut its rating on several Chinese firms, while UK hedge fund Marshall Wace has questioned whether Chinese stocks are investable in the near term.

More broadly, China’s A-shares have trailed global markets, and Chinese companies listed in the United States and Hong Kong have underperformed even more after recent regulatory crackdowns and compliance issues facing several well-known Chinese firms.

So should investors trust BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and double down on their Chinese investments?

First, let's examine BlackRock’s motives and incentives. Its CEO, Larry Fink, has been trying to cultivate a strong relationship with Beijing for many years.

BlackRock in June became the first U.S. asset manager to receive approval to establish a mutual fund business in China,

China’s A-shares have trailed global markets. a position “we are honored to be in,” Fink said in a statement at the time.

BlackRock also has one of the biggest rosters of investment funds with China exposure, including dedicated China funds, as well as Asian and emerging markets funds with China allocation.

The firm’s flagship BlackRock China Fund, which has positions in Tencent, China Merchant Bank, and electric vehicle maker Xpeng, had assets under management of more than $1.5 billion as of Aug. 20. BlackRock also runs a China bond fund that invests in a variety of fixed-income products.

In other words, BlackRock would be well-incentivized to drum up support for investing in China.

U.S. retail investors buying American depositary receipt (ADR) shares of Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges aren’t really buying what they think they’re buying. A share of BABA isn’t owning a share in the actual Alibaba operating company, which is the biggest online retailer in China. A share of BABA is a piece of an offshore holding company, or variable interest entity (VIE), that has a legal construct with the Chinese operating company that grants the

offshore VIE a share of Alibaba's profits.

In other words, it's synthetic ownership because China has banned foreign ownership in certain domestic industries.

In addition, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has begun a series of regulatory reforms—in other words, crackdowns—targeting foreign listed companies. Numerous companies have been affected across industries such as education, internet, and transportation.

Many of these companies have seen their shares listed in Hong Kong or New York tumble in recent weeks.

More recently, the CCP has hinted that the “pseudo-capitalism” it peddled over the past 20-plus years may require some drastic changes. In August, it outlined a series of edicts to ensure “common prosperity” within Chinese society. The guidelines seek to promote earnings equality, reduce excessive earnings, and encourage high earners and enterprises to give back to society.

Another recent development, which is seldom reported, strikes at the very core of China’s "pseudo-capitalist" system: the CCP appears to be tightening its control over private companies in increasingly draconian ways.

The Information, a U.S. tech site, reported that one Chinese government entity recently took a small ownership stake and a board seat in a subsidiary of ByteDance, the parent company of the social media platform TikTok. This development suggests that the CCP will assert more direct influence over companies' culture, policies, and business strategy.

All of this isn’t to say that China has zero merit from an investment perspective. But before acting on any “expert” advice, investors must do their own due diligence and carefully examine these risks.

And going forward, investors must increasingly consider—to quote Donald Rumsfeld—the “potential known unknowns” of investing in China.

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 51

The Week in Short | World

“​​[THE] COLLAPSE [IN AFGHANISTAN] HAS BEEN FASTER THAN EVEN THE TALIBAN THEMSELVES PREDICTED.” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson

A PANDEMIC-DRIVEN PARTS CRUNCH IS FORCING TOYOTA TO CUT PRODUCTION BY 40 PERCENT IN ASSEMBLY PLANTS IN JAPAN AND BY AS MUCH AS 60 PERCENT IN NORTH AMERICA, THE AUTOMAKER SAYS.

60

%

Japan Suspends 1.6 Million Doses of Moderna Vaccine After Reports of Contamination

Japan has announced that it’s suspending the use of about 1.63 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine due to reports of contamination. The country’s health ministry said “foreign materials” were found in at least 390 doses—or 39 vials, according to The Asahi Shimbun.

“The EU will continue to support the Member States affected by the actions of the Lukashenko regime.”

Peter Stano, spokesperson, European Commision, saying to Polish news agency PAP that the EU is ready to bring new sanctions against Belarus if chaos in the country continues.

52 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

$500 MILLION

Taliban Official: No Democracy in Afghanistan, Council Will Likely Rule

The Taliban terrorist group is considering using a council to govern Afghanistan after taking over the country, while leaving the movement’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, in overall charge.

Akhundzada would likely play a role above the head of the council, who would be akin to the country’s president, Taliban official Waheedullah Hashimi, who has access to the group’s decision-making, said in an interview near the Afghanistan–Pakistan border.

President Joe Biden has authorized an extra $500 million for relocating Afghan refugees, including applicants for special immigrant visas, according to the White House.

Chief Editor of Independent Belarus News Agency Missing After Raid: Association

The chief editor of one of Belarus’s leading independent news organizations, Irina Levshyna of BelaPAN, has gone missing after police searched her home overnight, the country’s reporters’ association said, as authorities pursue a crackdown on dissent.

Authorities have waged a campaign of repression against non-state media, human right groups, and leaders of protests against the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko since August 2020, when he was reelected in a ballot that the opposition and Western observers say was rigged.

“The CCP’s idea is that the enemy’s enemy is a friend.

Feng Chongyi, professor, University of Technology Sydney, saying to The Epoch Times that the Chinese Communist Party’s support for the Taliban’s rise in Afghanistan “because they and the United States are on the opposite sides.”

35

$

HONG KONG LEADER WARNS TO DISBAND GROUPS THAT DARE TO CROSS ‘RED LINES’

BILLION

The German government has backed $35.16 billion in federal funding to help rebuild the damage in western and southern Germany following heavy rainfall and flooding in mid-July.

US Software Firm Accuses Huawei of Installing ‘Back Door’ to Spy on Pakistan

California-based Business Efficiency Solutions (BES), a U.S. software company, is accusing Chinese tech giant Huawei of pressuring it to build a data “back door” into a government security project in Pakistan, allowing Huawei to collect data on the country’s security and citizens, according to a lawsuit.

“We must unite to make sure Afghanistan is never again used as a safe haven for terrorists.”

António Guterres, U.N. secretary-general.

The Hong Kong government will disband organizations that cross “red lines”and disregard Beijing’s national security, Chief Executive Carrie Lam has warned.

Hong Kong authorities continue to suppress dissent after the Chinese regime passed the national security law on June 30, 2020.

Major Study: COVID-19 Vaccines Less Effective Against Delta, as Good as ‘Natural Infection’

The effectiveness of widely used COVID-19 vaccines against the Delta strain becomes weaker within three months of inoculation, said a study from Oxford University, which also said that two doses of the vaccine provided as much protection as “having had COVID-19 before through natural infection.”

NEW ZEALAND THROWN INTO

National Lockdown

20,000

AFG HANS

The UK is planning to give sanctuary to about 5,000 at-risk Afghan citizens by 2022 and up to 20,000 long-term, the government has announced.

U.S. border officers in Chicago seized “very realistic” fake law enforcement badges arriving from China, Customs and Border Protection said.

IMAGES BY SHUTTERSTOCK; PHOTOS BY GETTY IMAGES; AP; INSTAGRAM; THE EPOCH TIMES

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has put the country under national lockdown, on Aug. 17 for seven days, after authorities detected a single case of the CCP virus’ Delta variant in the city of Auckland. An additional 4 cases have been confirmed thereafter.

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 53

Nation Profile

THOUGHT LEADERS

The COVID-19 Fallout: Collateral Damage and Loss of Trust

D

r . m a r t i n k u l l d o r f f

is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a biostatistician and epidemiologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He helped develop the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s system for monitoring potential vaccine risks and is also one of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which argued for “focused protection” of the most vulnerable, instead of lockdowns.

Recently on “American

Thought Leaders,” host Jan Jekielek interviewed Kulldorff on vaccine passports, the Delta variant, and the COVID-19 “public health fiasco.”

JAN JEKIELEK: We’re

about a year and a half into the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve had lockdowns.

We’ve had an emergence out of lockdowns right now in places like New York.

We were getting closer to

54 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

some kind of semblance of normality, and now we have the Delta variant and there’s discussion of lockdowns again.

You’ve described the global COVID response as, and I’ll quote you here, “The biggest public health fiasco in history.” That feels like a big statement to make. Tell me more.

DR. MARTIN KULLDORFF: I think it is,

without a doubt. There are two aspects of that. One

is, while anybody can get infected by COVID, there’s more than a thousand-fold difference in the risk for death between the oldest and the youngest. So with the naive belief that these lockdowns would protect everybody—which now, obviously, we know that didn’t work—a lot of people got COVID, and a lot of people died.

But there was this naive belief that they would protect the older people.

Because of that, we did

Dr. Martin Kulldorff

Nation Profile

not implement basic public health measures to actually do what was necessary to protect those older, high-risk people.

And because of that, many of them died unnecessarily from COVID. The other aspect of it is the collateral damage from these lockdowns.

For example, children didn’t go to school. The children are at a miniscule risk from this disease in terms of mortality. They can get infected for sure, but the risk from COVID for children is less than the risk from annual influenza, which is already very

Public health is about all health outcomes.

You can’t just focus on COVID and then ignore everything else. low for children. So for them, this is not a risky thing. And one example is Sweden.

From the first wave in the spring of 2020, Sweden was the only Western country that did not close down all the schools. So schools and daycares were open for children ages 1 to 15. Among the 1.8 million children in Sweden during this first wave, there were exactly zero deaths from COVID. And that was without using masks, without social distancing, and without any testing. If a child was sick, they were told to stay home. That was it.

Cardiovascular disease outcomes and heart disease have been bad during this pandemic because people don’t go to the hospitals.

The health care that they need is just not available, like for diabetes patients, for example.

Cancer has actually gone down in 2020 and 2021, but that’s not because there is less cancer. It’s just that we’re not detecting them. And if we’re not detecting them, we’re not treating them either. This is nothing that shows up in the statistics this year, except to a very small extent.

But let’s say women who

didn’t get their cervical cancer screening might now die three or four years from now, instead of living another 15, 20 years.

This has really been an awful response to the pandemic, which goes against the basic principles of public health that we have followed for many decades.

So it’s very unfortunate.

MR. JEKIELEK: That’s

very interesting. You would think that the basic principles of public health would be implemented and enforced in this situation.

So why has that not been done?

DR. KULLDORFF: That is

a very good question. To be honest, I don’t know the answer. To me, as a public health scientist, it’s stunning that we suddenly threw out these principles we have used for decades to deal with public health issues. One is, public health is about all health outcomes. It’s not just about one disease like COVID. You can’t just focus on COVID and then ignore everything else. That goes against how we do public health.

MR. JEKIELEK: You men-

tioned that people are being forced to take a vaccine. I

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 55

Nation Profile

The only way to [regain trust] is, one, to be very honest and straight with people; two, to trust the public; and three, to actually listen to the public.

Dr. Martin Kulldorff, professor, Harvard Medical School

don’t know of anyone in the U.S. actually being forced to take it directly. Tell me what you mean when you say that.

DR. KULLDORFF: There’s

a push both for vaccine passports and vaccine mandates. If people want to have a job and stay at the job, they are required to take the vaccine or they’ll be fired. If they want to study at university, many universities are

requiring vaccines for all the students.

So there are these vaccine mandates and vaccine passports. In New York City, for example, now they’re requiring restaurants to require vaccinations for people who go to the restaurants.

That is a very coercive way to get people to vaccinate. And that’s very bad for public health. One question is, “Why do you coerce people who are immune or

people who are young, who have a very small risk, when the vaccines are much more needed for older people in other places?” So that’s an ethical aspect of it. I think it is very unethical to do so.

MR. JEKIELEK: Jumping

into these collateral damages, you mentioned the mental health costs. I remember reading the statistic, which I’ve said a number of times in interviews, in this one study 25 percent of teenagers had suicidal ideation, 1 in 4.

I didn’t even know what to think about that. Can you expand on the mental health collateral costs?

DR. KULLDORFF: Yes,

that’s very tragic. The normal number was like 4 or 5 percent and now it’s 25 percent. So that’s very tragic. And we have had a lot of mental health consequences. There’s also been opioid overdoses that have increased now. Of course, a lot of that is not very

measurable, because a lot of it is hidden.

MR. JEKIELEK: We’ve

received all this conflicting information from public health authorities. And in some cases, the guidance didn’t seem to have much to do with public health policy. There is a general distrust that I’ve been hearing all over the place, the general feeling that there isn’t trust in these agencies that are responsible for these things, from the WHO, all the way down. You say trust is so critical. So what happens now?

DR. KULLDORFF: It’s not

a surprise that the trust has plummeted for public health agencies and public health officials because of these mixed messages, and also things like not taking a natural immunity from having had COVID disease into account and still forcing people to vaccinate.

So it’s very understandable that the trust has come down. Both within the scientific community and the public health community, we have a lot of work to do to regain that trust. It’s going to take a long time, but it is important to do that and to try to regain that trust.

The only way to do it is, one, to be very honest and straight with people; two, to trust the public; and three, to actually listen to the public and not just make public health policy based on the “Zoom class,” who can work from home—people like scientists and journalists and their neighbors.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity

by Jeff Minick

56 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

INSIGHT

Lifestyle Notable Reads, Films, Places, and Things to Do

LOOKING FOR AN ESCAPE? You’ve come to the right place. Find our recommendations for great reads (white-knuckle thriller or feel-good fiction?), fun films (over-the-top action and laughs, or a John Ford western?), and discover fascinating places, like Mont-St-Michel.

Just kick back with a cold one (see. P. 65 for summer’s best brews) and let the fun begin.

Operating a boat is fairly straightforward, but it does require your full attention.

Lifestyle Boating

Anchors Aweigh!

Boating 101: How to get started

E

By Bill Lindsey ndless months of social distancing have affected the ability of family and friends to enjoy get-togethers at restaurants, movies, concerts, or other entertainment venues, leaving many feeling isolated. Here’s one solution: boats allow small groups to safely enjoy each other’s company while offering fresh air and sunshine.

Most bowrider or center console pleasure boats under 21 feet in size are easy to operate while safely and comfortably accommodating four to six people. An express cruiser featuring more seating areas, as well as an enclosed cabin with a bathroom and kitchen (the “head” and the “galley”), may be more appropriate for larger families or groups, or for extended and overnight cruising.

Don’t own a boat? Not a problem; 58 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

many marinas have fleets of rental boats available, allowing new boaters to “try before they buy” or to simply rent a boat rather than own, thus avoiding maintenance and storage responsibilities. Rental boats are ready to go, equipped with required safety equipment including life preservers, a horn, and signaling devices; just step aboard and choose a direction. Boat rental companies operate coast to coast, offering a variety of boats ranging in size from 18-foot outboard engine-powered models to 40-foot cruisers. Most can assist with hands-on training, in addition to providing references for local boating safety classes.

A boat allows you to enjoy amazing experiences those confined to dry land can’t imagine. Distant islands in the bay are transformed into picnic sites, warm evenings are prime cocktail cruise dates, and any day is ideal for a leisurely, stress-shedding ride

While enjoying a day on the water, make sure guests stay safe.

across the lake, up the river, or along the coast. In short, a boat is a veritable portable, personal island, making every day on the water a family reunion and every casual cruise with friends and coworkers a reconnecting adventure. A boat allows you to discover how different a community

LIFESTYLE

BOATING

What to think about when on water

3 Rules of the Road

Amid endless months of social distancing, boating allows you to enjoy amazing bonding time with small groups of friends and family.

looks from the water and the joys of finding a quiet spot to toss out the anchor, transforming the boat into a waterfront restaurant with no wait or mask mandates.

The only thing a boat has in common with a car is the steering wheel; instead of a gas and brake pedal, a lever controls the throttle for speed and engine direction (forward, neutral, and reverse). While most states don’t require special licensing to operate a small boat, it’s always a good idea to have someone experienced at the wheel because every boat cruise is a practical lesson in physics. Wind, water currents, and even the wake from other boats affect speed and direction. These forces have a direct relationship to the comfort and safety of the passengers on the boat. As an example, crossing a large wake from a passing boat or applying too much throttle can cause the bow to unexpectedly rise up, throwing the boat off

course while jostling passengers.

Operating a boat is fairly straightforward, but it does require your full attention. In addition to making sure guests are comfortable, they need to stay safe, keeping arms, feet, and hands inside the vessel while underway. Dangling legs over the bow may seem like fun but it could go wrong in an instant if a passing boat’s wake causes one of your guests to fall overboard in the path of the spinning propeller. When the boat is anchored to take a dip, no one should go in the water until the engine is turned off and the key removed from the ignition. And just as drinking and driving don’t mix on the road, the person operating the boat needs to be clearheaded from the time the boat pulls away from the dock until it is safely tied up again at the end of the cruise.

3 Safety Equipment Ensure there is one PFD (personal flotation device) sized to fit every person on board, as well as a throwable flotation device, all kept within easy reach. If the family dog is coming aboard, make sure it also wears a PFD.

3 Essentials Essential gear for every cruise includes sunblock, sunglasses, hats, medications (in case delays keep you on the water longer than expected), a basic first aid kit, cell phone and charger cable, snacks, and a cooler filled with water.

ILLUSTRATION BY JUNHAO SU

What to Know

A boat allows you to discover how the world looks from the water and go on adventures those confined to dry land can’t imagine.

U.S. waterways feature navigational markers that may also warn of shallow water, rocks, or other hazards. Keep the boat centered between these markers, staying on the right side just as you do on a highway.

I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021 59

Anita Sherman is an award-winning journalist with 20 years’ experience as a writer and editor for several Virginia publications. She is a bibliophile, film noir fan, and Blackwing pencils devotee.

WHAT TO READ Classics

meditations

By Marcus Aurelius

Reflections on Stoic Philosophy It’s doubtful that Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius envisioned his personal notes would shine for centuries. But words are powerful, and his reflections on Stoic philosophy and living a virtuous life offer us a valuable perspective on wisdom, justice, and courage.

RANDOM HOUSE, MAY 2003, 256 PAGES

Thriller

So many books to entertain and inspire. Check out this week’s list and send us your favorite reads at features@epochtimes.com battles Chinese and Russian efforts to gain control of the Arctic Shelf.

It’s a highly charged political game with Harvath masterminding the pieces. Count on Harvath to maintain security and safety in the face of adversity. Like Ian Fleming’s James Bond and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Thor’s compelling operative promises to chill readers in this latest white-knuckle mission.

By Brad Thor

A WhiteKnuckle Mission Ready for another riveting, roller-coaster ride read? Ace spymaster and the president’s secret weapon is back.

This time, Scot Harvath

office, it gives us new insight into his complex character.

SCRIBNER, JULY 2021, 320 PAGES

Inspirational

EMILY BESTLER BOOKS, SIMON AND SCHUSTER, JULY 2021, 336 PAGES

Biography

the midnight library

By Matt Haig

A Place Between Life and Death

the director: my years assisting j. edgar hoover

By Paul Letersky with Gordon Dillow

A Complex Leader and Loyal Patriot

black ice

Epoch Booklist

Eight presidents from Coolidge to Nixon had an uneasy relationship with one of America’s most powerful figures—J. Edgar Hoover. They never dared to fire him for fear of what he had sequestered in his files. Hoover reigned over the FBI with an iron fist while hobnobbing with high society. Of all the books written about him, this one is unique. Written by a young assistant, Paul Letersky, who shared the inner sanctum of his

60 I N S I G H T August 20–27, 2021

Bestselling author Matt Haig is a veteran writer of several books for adults and children. A keen explorer of the human heart, his writings reflect his empathy for our everyday struggles and the consequences of the choices we make. When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, a place somewhere between life and death, she discovers more in these magical and hopeful volumes than she thought she knew.

VIKING, SEPTEMBER 2020, 304 PAGES

Beach Read

the last thing he told me

By Laura Dave

Deceit, Honesty, Love, and Family “Protect her.” These were the last words that Owen Michaels smuggles to his wife of one year before he disappears. Hannah Hall quickly realizes that they refer to 16-yearold Bailey, her stepdaughter. The two embark on a poignant, page-turning journey that explores deceit, love, sacrifice, and family relationships.

A Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection.

SIMON AND SCHUSTER, MAY 2021, 320 PAGES

Culture

punches in “American Marxism,” deftly describing an America under siege from Marxist forces that threaten public education, the press, corporations, and churches. A timely and prescient warning, "American Marxism" urges us to take up the gauntlet to preserve liberty and democracy.

THRESHOLD EDITIONS, SIMON AND SCHUSTER, JULY 2021, 320 PAGES

Barbara Danza is a mom of two and a kid at heart.

For Children

if i never forever endeavor

By Holly Meade american marxism

By Mark R. Levin

A Country Under Siege Watch him on TV. Listen to him on the radio.

Mark R. Levin is passionate about this country. A nationally syndicated talk radio host, chairman of Landmark Legal Foundation, and the host of a Fox News show, he has authored six consecutive No. 1 New York Times bestsellers. He pulls no

To Fly or Not to Fly Meade’s beautifully illustrated, poetic depiction of a hesitant, young bird perched at the edge of its cozy nest, cautiously considering whether or not to fledge and fly, is picture-book perfection. It would make a sweet gift for children, graduates, or anyone facing a big decision.

—Barbara Danza CANDLEWICK PRESS, APRIL 2011, 32 PAGES

Epoch Watchlist

Ian Kane is a U.S. Army veteran, filmmaker, and author.

He enjoys the great outdoors and volunteering.

WHAT TO WATCH

Could “Free Guy” be the film of the summer? Plus, recommendations for classics including a groundbreaking WWI film and a John Ford western.

COMEDY

ACTION Nobody (2021)

Free Guy (2021 ) Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is a non-player character in a video game but doesn’t realize it. He meets the avatar of a human player (Jodie Comer) who’s on a secret mission within the game world, which causes a glitch in his programming.

While the film begins with the “we live in a simulation” trope we’ve seen before, as things progress, it develops its own unique voice. Underneath all of the over-the-top action and laughs is a sobering, thought-provoking film.

Full of engaging characters and an intriguing premise, this could be the film of the summer.

MOVIE INFO

Release Date: Aug. 13, 2021 Director: Shawn Levy Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Taika Waititi Runtime: 1 hour, 55 minutes Rated: PG-13 Where to Watch: In theaters

CLASSICS the dawn patrol (1938 )

mrs. miniver (1942 )

stagecoach (1939 )

A World War I film that was groundbreaking in many ways. It featured many aspects that were popularized for years to come, such as incredibly tense aerial dogfights, a gentlemanly sense of honor between enemies, military men who knew they were probably doomed but flew out anyway, and alcohol-tinged bouts of brotherhood in the face of impending death.

This excellent film focuses on the Minivers, an English middle-class family. It compares their lives leading up to World War II and during the first months of the war itself.

It also shows their struggles. This riveting drama was remarkable in that it showed what lengths the British people went in order to contribute to the war.

In one of acclaimed director John Ford’s greatest films, starring John Wayne, a group of strangers travel on a stagecoach through dangerous lands inhabited

by Native Americans on the warpath. They have to learn to work together, or they might not make it. An ultimately unifying film about working together despite one’s differences.

When an unassuming everyman, Hutch (Bob Odenkirk), comes across a couple of thugs who are harassing a woman, he beats them up. But he soon realizes that one of his victims is related to a notorious Russian mobster who wants revenge. As the story progresses, we learn that there may be more to Hutch than meets the eye.

This is a gritty underdog tale that wears its dark sense of humor proudly. You won’t find any hidden social agendas here, just “man with a mysterious past” butt-kickin’ action. The

strong violence shown might turn some off, but for others, it may be countered by the film’s message of helping those in need.

MOVIE INFO

Release Date: March 26, 2021 Director: Derek Kolstad Starring: Bob Odinkirk, Aleksey Serebryakov, Connie Nielsen Runtime: 1 hour, 32 minutes Rated: R Where to Watch: YouTube, FlixFling, etc.

DRAMA I Can Only Imagine (2018 ) Although some faith-based Christian films have a reputation for being a little too schmaltzy, this film isn’t one of them.

It’s about a young musician named Bart (J. Michael Finley), who grew up with an abusive father (Dennis Quaid) who projected his own failings onto him.

Bart leaves with his bandmates in search of fame and fortune.

But after a tragic event happens back home, will he be able to forgive his old man?

This is a truly mag-

nificent film about the power of love and forgiveness, without being preachy or corny.

MOVIE INFO

Release Date: March 16, 2018 Director: The Erwin Brothers Starring: J. Michael Finley, Madeline Carroll, Dennis Quaid Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes Rated: PG Where to Watch: Google Play Movies, Microsoft Store, etc.

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Travel France Mont-St-Michel has attracted pilgrims since medieval times—including several kings from France and England. With the development of a Benedictine abbey, it became a renowned center for learning, and many manuscripts were produced there.

Swept Away by Mont-St-Michel

The origins of this mesmerizing French island are steeped in dreams and legends

R

By Tim Johnson ising from the sea like something from a fairy tale, MontSaint-Michel challenges your sense of reality. An island that’s sometimes not an island. A geological wonder that’s also a geographic oddity. A fortress and an abbey and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At high tide, the whole place seems to hover over the water, and when it’s out, the seemingly impregnable surroundings become a sandy stretch explored by the curious and the brave. But one thing is certain: When you arrive and see it for the first time— ramparts, stonework, and buildings that seem to grow right out of the granite, all crowned by a soaring steeple capped by an angel—you won’t quite believe your eyes.

Situated in the English Channel just off France’s Normandy coast, a visit here will take you back

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115

The three-tiered Marveille rises 115 feet. On the lowest layer is the chaplaincy.

On the second, a dining hall. On top, the cloisters and the monks’ refectory.

some 1,300 years. It’s currently home to fewer than 50 people, mostly monks and nuns who reside in the abbey. Once you arrive, go wander (and maybe get lost). Enter through the King’s Gate and make your way through the shops and cafes along the Grande Rue. Sit and soak up the haunting sound of a hymn in the abbey. Be still, and watch the transformation created by the tides.

And it all started with a dream—actually, three—or so the legend goes. They say that back in the early eighth century, the archangel Michael (Michel, in French) appeared to Aubert, the bishop of Avranches, in his sleep. Twice, Michael told the man to establish a sanctuary in his name on what was then known as Monte-Tombe. The third time, he drove home the point, poking his finger into the bishop’s skull. Aubert responded, sending messengers to bring back the relics of the archangel from Italy, then dedicated the sanctuary in the year 709. (As a side trip, it’s worth checking out the Church of Saint-Gervais in Avranches,

Travel France

which has preserved the skull of Aubert, complete with its hole.)

Pilgrims followed, and layer upon layer, the place grew. In 966, the Duke of Normandy established a commune of Benedictine monks.

By 1000, they had built the Church of NotreDame-sous-Terre, now under the nave of the current abbey, and a place you can still visit.

Kings of both France and England came here.

The Gothic Merveille was created by medieval builders in the 13th century. Le Mont was a bastion, never captured during the Hundred Years War (1337–1453), repelling invaders with just a handful of knights on hand during furious sieges. And it was a prison, too, from the 17th to the 19th century.

Now it’s a place to explore, starting with a closer examination of shifting worlds created by those tides. At low tide, the water recedes out to sea, meaning you can actually walk over, and all around, on dry land. But while predictable, they can also be treacherous—anyone on the island will readily tell you stories about overzealous adventurers who didn’t watch their time and ended up in a bad spot. Some of Europe’s most dramatic tides, rushing in at 200 feet per minute and rising as much as 45 feet, also create pools of quicksand that can trap the unwary. Fortunately, you can book a walking tour with a guide who

Inside the mount, you’ll marvel at the Merveille, a three-layered gothic crown jewel of the abbey that was built in 13th-century Normandy.

Lower Normandy FRANCE

Mont-Saint-Michel is located in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy, France.

ry and whimsical stories here. It’s also a great spot IF YOU GO for souvenir hunting, a When to Go: tradition that dates back Summer is high to the days of the pilgrims. season; visit from And make sure to take March to October your time when you visit for good weather. the abbey.

Safety: Keep Make your way along watch on some of Europe's most the winding streets in dramatic tides, town to the top of the which while mount, proceeding inside predictable, can be after paying the entrance treacherous. There fee of 10 euros (about $12). is the option of booking a walking A walk-through will take tour with a guide. you through the centuries Getting There: Fly of construction, blending to Paris, where you a wide spectrum of styles. can rent a car or But you’ll marvel at the take a 4-hour train Merveille. A gothic wonride to Saint-Malo. der that includes three layAccommodations: ered levels and 16 buttressThe seaside city es, this crown jewel of the offers everything from budget B&Bs abbey was built during the to the regal Le power and prosperity of Grand Hotel des 13th-century Normandy.

Thermes.

This section took 17 years to construct and rises 115 feet. Each floor serves a unique purpose—on the lowest, the chaplaincy met weary pilgrims arriving at their destination. On the second, a dining hall where fireplaces once warded off the chilly night air. On top, the cloisters and the monks’ refectory.

You can tarry, inspecting the fine handiwork, the result of centuries of painstaking labor to achieve this masterpiece. And when at last you must go, be careful. Shifting sands and rising tides may accompany your departure from MontSt-Michel.

If You Go

is well aware of all the factors at play. Doing so is a cool opportunity to get a new perspective on the island, looking up from its base, over the ramparts, to the golden figure of Michael, at more than 300 feet high, triumphing over a dragon.

Mont-St-Michel is also home to some worthwhile museums, including one dedicated to local maritime culture and ecology, and an “archeoscope,” a multimedia show based on the histo-

During a siege in 1421, the abbey’s Romanesque chancel collapsed; it was rebuilt in flamboyant Gothic style.

Driving east from Paris, the trip will take a little more than four hours by car, or hop on the TGV, France’s fast train, and ride as far as Saint-Malo, perhaps your best option for accommodations options. The seaside city offers everything from budget B&Bs to the regal Le Grand Hotel des Thermes, as well as many small restaurants offering top-notch seafood. But make sure to enjoy at least one meal on the mount itself, and make it the famous, fluffy omelette at La Mère Poulard.

Toronto-based writer Tim Johnson has visited 140 countries across all seven continents. He contributes to some of North America’s largest publications, including CNN Travel, Bloomberg, and The Globe and Mail.

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Travel France PHOTOS BY SHUTTERSTOCK

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Summer’s Last Hurrah

SUMMIT BREWING CABIN CRUSHER Much like lemonade, beers with a touch of sour fruitiness go well with summer.

This one starts with a style that already suits the season—the light, dry, hints-of-fruit Kölsch style—and adds lime and lime peel, whose bright presence gives the beer an easy drinkability.

WHILE THERE’S NO LAW that says you can’t enjoy

a stout such as Guinness in the warmer days, the truth is, beer drinkers gravitate toward lighter, more refreshing styles when the heat’s on, and craft brewers meet the demand. (As much as they also make the demand—if you brew it, they will drink.) Many of these brews offer a lower percentage ABV, which also makes for easy drinking. Before the season ends, here are some recommendations for when you need a cold one.

By Kevin Revolinski

SUMMIT BREWING TRIUMPHANT SESSION IPA A modest touch of bitterness is balanced with fruity notes that recall pineapples and apricot. This year-round offering hits the low-cal mark of under 100 calories and an ABV of 4 percent.

SIERRA NEVADA SUMMER BREAK SESSION HAZY IPA More drinkable than typical hazy IPAs, this sessionable brew has 4.6 percent ABV and lands toward the medium side of lightbodied. A mild malt presence is coupled with passionfruit and mango fruitiness, in a straw-colored and cloudy pour with a thin white head.

SURLY BREWING GRAPEFRUIT SUPREME Featuring pilsner malt and some unmalted wheat in its grain bill, this 4.5 percent ABV brew is refreshing without being sour, but you can’t miss the grapefruit— and that’s not a bad thing

Beer Essentials

DOGFISH HEAD SEA QUENCH SESSION SOUR ALE With its lime tartness and a touch of salt, one can’t help think of a margarita without the punch: At 4.9 percent ABV, you can stay sharp for competitive rounds of cornhole, horseshoes, or whatever you’re throwing in your corner of the beer garden.

REVOLUTION BREWING SUNCRUSHER ALE Wheat beers, often unfiltered and hazy and with a slice of orange or lemon, scream summertime in Bavaria. This American style from Chicago combines citrus flavors with a solid backbone of breadiness.

PINKUS MUNSTER ALT From the world's first organic brewery comes a light-bodied, pale gold brew with a light tartness and acidity—a bit different from the usually brown altbiers of Dusseldorf.

AYINGER BAVARIAN PILS From the Old Country, consider some of the German beer garden brews.

Ayinger Bavarian Pils is a bit lighter and no less delicious than a Czech pilsner.

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Life

JEFF MINICK For 20 years, Jeff Minick taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va. See JeffMinick.com to follow his blog.

Change the Pace and Win the Race

If you're constantly sprinting through life, a change in perspective may be just the thing

A

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tive behaviors that might otherwise sap our time, energy, and enthusiasm—“trying to project a false image of oneself,” for example, engaging in sarcasm or backbiting, or worst of all, forgetting the main point of the race we’re running.

Let’s return to that 30-something accountant. In good conscience, he can’t make too many alterations to

'Festina lente,' the Roman emperor Augustus was fond of saying. 'Make haste slowly.'

SHUTTERSTOCK

famous song of the Great Depression was “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” Today we might change that title to “Mother, Can You Spare Some Time?”

If you’re in the peak years of your life, odds are you’re sprinting through most of your days. You’re running flat-out as fast you can, like so many others around you, and you’re getting lots accomplished, which is all to the good.

But sometimes you may feel that some ingredient for happiness is missing. You aren’t sure what it is, but you sense some key component of the good life is eluding you, lost in the day’s hectic schedule.

Let’s say you’re an ambitious 30-something accountant in a large firm. Your spouse teaches part-time English composition in a community college, you’re blessed with a preschooler and a first-grader, and you spend weekends and evenings tending to their needs, making repairs to your home, attending a worship service, and driving your widowed mother around town on her errands.

And every night you fall exhausted into bed, feeling as if that race you’ve just run has no finishing tape.

Life couldn’t be fuller. Or could it?

In his book “Character Building: A Guide for Parents and Teachers,” David Isaacs discusses how the practice of certain virtues and principles can enhance our lives. In one chapter, he writes that “the complete rapport between how one acts and how one feels in one’s heart” allows us to meet situations and people as authentic persons. Coupled with the virtue of prudence, Isaacs tells us, this sincerity of spirit frees us from those destruc-

the timetable of his days. Work, his wife, his children, his mother, the house, and some civic responsibilities are non-negotiable obligations.

But this man may find greater happiness when he performs these duties by practicing authenticity, by embracing the moment. When he greets a colleague at work in the morning, he deepens that brief encounter with a smile and a friendly inquiry about her family. He cheerfully handles his duties in the office and listens—truly listens—to his clients. On the drive home, he shrugs off the worries of work so that when he enters the house he’s ready to give his wife a hug, listen to the kids chatter about their day, help prepare supper, and share some alone time with his spouse once the kids are asleep. When he drives his mother to the pharmacy or the grocery store, he leaves the radio off and has a conversation with Mom. After that worship service, he sticks around and visits with others in the congregation, showing a real interest in them.

Many of us can’t escape running the race. Obligation and responsibility push us forward every day.

But when we make this effort to connect to people, when we live fully in the moment, when we’re genuine, we may find joy in the running and may even slow the pace a bit.

“Festina lente,” the Roman emperor Augustus was fond of saying.

“Make haste slowly.”

Engage the moment and the people around you, and see what happens.

Modern life brings its own unique challenges. In this column, we look beyond surface solutions to deeper, timeless principles and ideas that can help us be our best—and help others around us as well.

Luxury Living Personal

TIMEKEEPING: THE ESSENTIAL BASICS OF A WATCH COLLECTION

A watch does more than tell the time; it tells the world who you are. The ideal collection includes examples from distinct categories. They all make sure you're on time for important events while expressing your unique sense of style.

Dive Watch

By Bill Lindsey

ROLEX SUBMARINER MSRP BEGINNING AT $8,100

Dress Watch PATEK PHILIPPE CALATRAVA MSRP BEGINNING AT $24,603

Designed with the assistance of Jacques Cousteau, the Rolex Submariner is the quintessential dive watch. Equally at home in the boardroom or 50 fathoms beneath the sea, Submariners feature the iconic Oyster watertight case, secure metal bracelet, and rotating uni-directional bezel.

The Patek Philippe Calatrava is a wristworn heirloom that exudes understated elegance. Handcrafted by uncompromising artisans, each is a superlative example of a traditional round case wristwatch that transforms the act of displaying the time to a magnificent performance.

Chronograph BREITLING SUPER AVENGER CHRONOGRAPH 48 NIGHT MISSION MSRP $6,250

Combining the functions of a stopwatch with a traditional wristwatch, the Breitling Super Avenger Chronograph 48 Night Mission tells the world you have the soul of a jet fighter pilot. The matte gray 48mm titanium case, blue leather strap, blue dial, and highvisibility hands exude a no-nonsense look.

Smartwatch TICWATCH PRO MSRP $299.99

Complication LONGINES MASTER COLLECTION MOONPHASE MSRP BEGINNING AT $2,450

A “complication” is a timepiece that performs multiple tasks. Longines’s Master Collection Moonphase displays 30-minute and 24-hour counters as well as the current phase of the moon, all in a sleek, vintageinspired package held securely in place via a hand-sewn alligator bracelet.

The TicWatch Pro features hundreds of display choices, from classic analog with sweeping hour, minute, and second hands, to digital displays. In addition to the preloaded health and fitness tracking functions, the Pro is compatible with all Google Play apps.

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