VOL.034 AUG 27 - SEP 2 , 2021
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A young girl points to a bus that will take people evacuated from Kabul Afghanistan to a refugee processing center after arriving to the Dulles International Airport on August 25, 2021 in Dulles, Virginia. (Images: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
STATE DEPARTMENT:
1,500
AMERICANS STILL IN AFGHANISTAN
Thousands evacuated, but efforts could continue past Aug.31 deadline By Leo Timm Vision Times
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bout 4,500 Americans have been evacuated from Afghanistan as the Taliban insurgency takes over the country, leaving another 1,500 who have not yet been accounted for as of press time, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The Biden-Harris administration aims to have all U.S. troops and civilians out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31, a deadline that the president has said could be pushed back if there were still Americans left in-country by that time. "We're aggressively reaching out to them multiple times a day, through multiple channels of communication — phone, email, text messaging — to determine whether they still want to leave," Blinken said. He added, however, that it was unlikely many of the remaining Americans were “actively seeking assistance” to leave the country, and that some may have already left Afghanistan without notifying U.S. authorities. On Aug. 18, President
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Joe Biden had given an estimate of 10,000 to 15,000 Americans left in Afghanistan, along with tens of thousands of Afghans who had been employed by the U.S. forces and are thus eligible for resettlement to the United States. Blinken’s statements came 10 days after Taliban militiamen occupied Kabul, the Afghan capital, and set up checkpoints controlling access to the Hamid Karzai International Airport.
‘The sooner we can finish, the better’
U.S. evacuation efforts began on Aug. 14, at which time Blinken said that there were 6,000 Americans who wanted to leave. More than 88,000 people have been evacuated, the vast majority of them Afghans. Biden announced the Aug. 31 pull-out date in July, when the U.S. closed down the strategically vital Bagram Airbase. The target is aimed at ending the U.S. war in Afghanistan A man carries his belongings as he and other people evacuated from Kabul Afghanistan. (Images: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which prompted the War on Terror. "We are currently on a pace to finish by August the 31st,” the president said on Tuesday. “The sooner we can finish, the better." "Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops," he said. The Taliban have warned of “consequences” if the U.S. does not hold to the deadline. Establishing which Americans genuinely wish to stay in Afghanistan is complicated by the Taliban’s encirclement of the airport. U.S. officials have confirmed reports of some Taliban fighters denying Americans or Afghans eligible for evacuation access to the airport. Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said on Friday, Aug. 20, that some Americans had been beaten while trying to evacuate, contradicting Biden’s remarks half an hour earlier that the Taliban was allowing Americans access to the airport. On Wednesday, Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby further said that the U.S. military had the ability to, but had not rescued any Americans outside of Kabul. Doing so, however, would require deploying some of the several thousand U.S. troops defending the airport to other areas, which would place the airport and air-
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According to the U.S. Department of Defense, five evacuation flights from Kabul have landed at Dulles Airport, carrying 1,200 Afghan refugees on the last day. (Images: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
craft at risk. Already U.S. officials warn of possible terror attacks by ISIS, an Islamist group even more extreme than the Taliban. The U.S. forces in Kabul have thus far undertaken three missions to retrieve Americans in the city, including one trip to a hotel where 169 citizens were holed up. Kirby said that U.S. troops could not be able to help an American couple reportedly in the city of Mazar-e-Sharife. Command Master Chief Anna Wood assists evacuees disembarking a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III at Naval Air Station Sigonella. (Images: U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class/Getty Images)
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California Police Find 300 Absentee Ballots for Recall Election in Felon’s Car By Neil Campbell Vision Times
By Jonathan Walker Vision Times
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felon in Torrance, California was found by police sleeping in his car in a convenience store parking lot along with guns, drugs, and 300 mail-in ballots for the Sept. 14 California recall election of Governor Gavin Newsome. In an August 23 report by ABC affiliate KABC, Torrance police made the discovery on the night of August 16 when they attended a call complaining of a man sleeping in his car in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven, “Inside the vehicle, the officers found a loaded handgun, some narcotics, and then they found a bunch of mail and what turned out to be over 300 election ballots in the backseat of the vehicle,” Sergeant Mark Ponegalek told the outlet. Ponegalek said the ballots appeared to be in a box but were also strewn about in the back seat of the man’s car, who was discovered to be a felon. Police said they discovered firearms, Xanax, methamphetamine, stolen credit cards, and stolen driver’s licenses along with the ballots. KABC said, “The man was taken into custody, but has since been released on his own recognizance. Police still don’t know how he obtained the ballots and what his intent was.” Ponegalek said the election ballots were unopened and untampered with, estimating the number at slightly more than 300, mostly from Lawndale and Compton. Both the Los Angeles County Registrar’s Office and police say they believe the case is not an
Grenell said, “@GavinNewsom needs to be asked if his team did this on purpose. This is cheating. ”(Image: Screenshot form twitter @RichardGrenell )
Photograph of several hundred California Recall Election absentee ballots found in the felon’s car. (Image: Torrance Police Department)
instance of election fraud because other stolen mail was found in the man’s car.
Mail-in ballot integrity
On August 19, former Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell generated major concerns about the integrity of the Sept. 14 recall election when he posted a tweet featuring a TikTok video where a woman demonstrated two holes placed on the envelope of her
absentee ballot that would reveal to mail carriers and election workers whether the voter had selected Yes or No for the question of whether Newsom should be recalled. Grenell said, “@GavinNewsom needs to be asked if his team did this on purpose. This is cheating.” In California’s recall election, voters first must vote Yes or No to determine by majority whether Newsom should be recalled. If they vote Yes, they must select the can-
didate they wish to see elected. Front-running Conservative candidate Larry Elder is notably placed on the back of the ballot. The woman demonstrates in her video how any regular voter who fills out “Yes” to the recall question and places the ballot in its envelope in a normal fashion based on the pre-folding of the absentee ballot will have their choice made clearly visible through two holes that are pre-punched into the envelope. “You can see if someone, from the outside of the mail-in ballot, you can see if somebody has voted yes to recall Newsom. This is very sketchy and irresponsible in my opinion, but this is asking for fraud,” says the woman in the video during her demonstration. The Los Angeles County Clerk defended the envelope design on Twitter, stating, “This has been part of the envelope design for years. The holes serve both an accessibility purpose and a quality assurance purpose after the fact to validate no voted ballots are left unprocessed; an established, recommended practice.”
Former Officials: Trump Planned to Keep Special Ops in Afghanistan By Arvind Datta Vision Times
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peaking with conservative outlet Breitbart, three former officials of the Trump administration said that the 45th U.S. president had planned on keeping American special forces units in Afghanistan indefinitely. According to the officials, President Donald Trump wanted the force to consist of around 800 men. Their mission would have been to support the Afghan military to prevent the kind of collapse recently witnessed this month. “That was the hope…to be able to do the drone mission and the counterterrorism support, and also advising specifically the Afghan Special Forces who were doing a lot of the [counterterrorism] efforts… And Biden just pulled them out as well,” a former senior defense official said to Breitbart. Another official pointed out that Trump had left 900 U.S. military personnel in Syria and said that the former president never pledged a full withdrawal from the country, despite his administration signing a peace deal with the Taliban. If true, the revelations would show a strong contrast between the Trump administration’s approach and that of the current Biden leadership. www.visiontimes.com
US Embassy Warns Stranded Americans: ‘Avoid Kabul Airport’
US soldiers take up their positions as they secure the airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021. (Images: SHAKIB RAHMANI/ Getty Images)
Kash Patel, who served as the Pentagon chief of staff until January this year, confirmed that leaving a Special Forces Unit in Afghanistan to combat terrorist threats was one of the conditions that Trump was negotiating with the Taliban as part of the withdrawal agreement. Patel stated that leaving the Special Forces back would have allowed the country’s military to “feel secure enough.” Other conditions included a “direct repudiation and rejection” of Al Qaeda by Taliban as well as a deal between the Afghan government and Taliban to negotiate an interim government that would have the assistance of Washington. According to Patel, the blueprint of the exit as well as plans to pull
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out equipment, machinery, American citizens, etc. were all handed over to the Biden administration. However, “they just basically threw it out the window and fast forward six, seven, eight months,” he said. Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defence, also refused to meet with then-Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, never showing interest in discussing the transition plan.
Bagram air base
The Biden administration’s decision to depart Bagram, a massive air base situated 20 miles north of Kabul, is also being heavily criticized. Had Washington retained control of the base, it could have evacuated more Americans easily and safely. The base is also easier
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to defend. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that handing over Bagram base was part of the Trump administration’s plan. However, Trump officials claim that the president planned to keep the air base until all Americans were evacuated. “They gave that up before doing anything. And now they’re wondering why Kabul international airport is basically a war zone… Biden did that, and that’s not a plan, that’s just ridiculous,” Patel said. At a recent rally in Alabama, Trump had called Biden’s handling of the U.S withdrawal from Afghanistan the “greatest foreign policy humiliation” in American history. “Biden’s botched exit from Afghanistan is the most astonishing display of gross incompetence by a nation’s leader, perhaps at any time,” Trump said at the rally. In an interview with Fox News, Trump stated that Biden’s decision to pull out troops from Afghanistan first left American citizens at the mercy of the Taliban. He warned that the Taliban could capture stranded Americans and use them as hostages. The former president also criticized Biden for allowing the Taliban to gain access to U.S. weapons and get control of Bagram air base. Trump said that the U.S. military should have been the last to exit Afghanistan. 212-730-696
On Aug. 21, the US embassy in Kabul issued a security alert to American citizens trapped in Afghanistan warning against traveling to the Kabul airport due to increasing threats by the Taliban regime. “We are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so,” the advisory issued by the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan stated. The advisory also mentioned that U.S. citizens in Afghanistan who are yet to fill out a Repatriation Assistance Request form must get it filled at the earliest. It urged Americans to avoid calling the embassy to seek updates or information regarding flight options.
U.S. service members are assisting the Department of State with a Non-Combatant Evacuation operation (NEO) in Afghanistan.( Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)
A spokesperson for the Taliban stated they would not be extending the Aug. 31 deadline for foreign forces to complete their current evacuation missions. He warned that there would be “consequences” if foreign forces extended their presence in Afghanistan beyond the deadline. The UK government plans to pressure President Joe Biden to delay withdrawing U.S. forces. France has also reportedly urged for America’s military presence to be extended. Meanwhile, the Pentagon admitted that it currently is not in a position to safely escort Americans in Kabul to the airport for evacuation. “I don’t have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul… And where do you take that? How far can you extend into Kabul and how long does it take to flow those forces in to be able to do that,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters. According to U.S. Army General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Kabul airport is currently secured with around 5,000 U.S. troops on the ground. He assured that the Taliban would not interfere with the evacuation operations. Milley however added that the situation “is still volatile and can change quickly.” The general stated that the Pentagon was, at present, deploying an average of around 20 sorties of cargo aircraft evacuation flights every 24 hours. Replying to a reporter’s query about the extraction of people behind Taliban lines using military troops, Milley said that the military has the “capability to do other things if necessary” but noted that the implementation of this option would be a “policy decision.”
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AUG 27 - SEP 2, 2021 |
A3
Biden Says US Committed to Taiwan’s Defense Pentagon Appoints Taiwan-born Undersecretary aircraft in warning. According to the Taiwanese authorities, PLA aircraft have made 380 sorties entering Taiwan’s ADIZ in the strait between it and the mainland since the beginning of 2021.
By Juliet Wei Vision Times
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peaking with ABC News on Aug. 18, U.S. President Joe Biden mentioned Taiwan and other American allies in a list of countries that the U.S. had a “sacred commitment” to defend. “We made a sacred commitment to Article Five that if in fact anyone were to invade or take action against our NATO allies, we would respond. Same with Japan, same with South Korea, same with– Taiwan. It’s not even comparable to talk about that,” Biden told the outlet. It’s the Biden administration’s clearest statement of support for Taiwan, the island officially known as the Republic of China (ROC), in the face of pressure from mainland China. Biden’s words come after the U.S. Department of Defense recently appointed Heidi Shyu to undersecretary of research and engineering. Shyu, born in Taiwan, is the granddaughter of Shyu Kangliang, who served as deputy commander of the Chinese air force in World War II when the ROC still controlled the mainland. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has touted America’s military withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s speedy takeover as an “omen” of things to come for Taiwan, which Beijing vows to
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Taiwan strategic calculus
“retake” with force if necessary.
Chinese and US exercises
On Aug. 17, combat aircraft of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) repeatedly flew into the Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), passing through the “R-12 target area” designated in ongoing ROC naval drills. Simultaneously, the PLA deployed submarines, surface vessels, and anti-submarine aircraft to the Taiwan Strait. The PLA’s activity was the first
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Heidi Shyu built her career in the defense industry, working on drones, space and reconnaissance systems, and the Joint Strike Fighter program, which would eventually become the F-35 stealth fighter.
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(Images: UCLA)
time that mainland forces had interfered with Taiwan’s military exercises. State-run CCTV claimed the PLA’s own exercise was “a serious response to external interference and provocation by Taiwan independence forces.” The ROC Ministry of National Defense stated that 11 PLA aircraft entered the air defense zone, among them two nuclear-capable H-6K bombers and six J-16 fighter jets. The defense ministry added that Taiwan dispatched its own
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Amid an overall shift by the U.S. to counter Beijing, Taiwan’s strategic importance has been growing steadily. On Aug. 6, the State Department approved a $750-million sale of 40 M109A6 Paladin selfpropelled artillery pieces to Taiwan, as well as support vehicles and other equipment, including thousands of precision guidance kits for the artillery, Defensenews reported. Though a de facto country, the ROC is not recognized by the U.N. as a sovereign state, and does not maintain official diplomatic relations with most countries. However, Taiwan’s position in the first island chain makes it a strategic key to America’s military dominance in the Pacific Ocean, as well as the security of U.S. allies like Japan. Moreover, Taiwan has the world’s most advanced semiconductor wafer technology, making up about half of global production. Chips made in Taiwan are a critical component in the U.S. tech and defense industries.
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A4 | AUG 27- SEP 2 , 2021 (Image s: Ad
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obe Sto ck)
The Didi IPO, for instance, has angered a lot of investors and unveiled corporate governance issues in the entire sector. This has damaged a lot of trust in Chinese ADRs (American Depository Receipts). ——Manuel Muhl of DZ Bankl said.
SELL Investors
Chinese Tech Stocks as Beijing Continues Crackdown
By Prakash Gogoi Vision Times
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n investor looks at screens showing stock market movements at a securities company in Nanjing in China's eastern Jiangsu province on July 6, 2020. (Image: STR/AFP via Getty Images) The Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on the country’s tech companies has wiped out a trillion dollars from global stock markets. And as Beijing continues to tighten its noose over tech firms, investors are becoming increasingly wary of betting their money on such stocks. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Manuel Muhl of DZ Bank, a Frankfurtbased lender, said that the downward pressure on Chinese stocks may not come to an end until Beijing restores investor confidence in the securities. Last month, Muhl had downgraded China’s internet platform sector and became the only analyst in the world to give a “sell” rating on big Chinese tech firms like Tencent and Alibaba. More than 50 securities analysts maintain a “buy” or “hold” call on these stocks. “For the sector to hit bottom, and potentially recover, the government needs to restore the trust that it has destroyed… This can only be achieved by reaching a point where they can publicly state that their crackdown has reached its goal and that they are done for now. When will that be? The Didi IPO, for instance, has angered a lot of investors and unveiled corporate governance issues in the entire sector. This has damaged a lot of trust in Chinese ADRs (American Depository Receipts),” Muhl said in the interview.
Political risks dampen investment
Chinese ride-hailing company Didi had raised a record $4.4 billion from its IPO on June 30 at $16 per share. The company was valued at $68.49 billion, the bigwww.visiontimes.com
gest U.S. listing by a Chinese firm since 2014. Two days later, Chinese regulators launched an investigation into Didi, citing violation of national security and data privacy laws. The share price tumbled and Didi is currently trading at around $7.5. Global investors have since taken a cautious approach to Chinese tech stocks. Cathie Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF has cut down exposure to Chinese companies to zero from eight percent in February. Paul Marshall, the co-founder of the $59 billion hedge fund Marshall Wace, warned clients in a letter that U.S.-listed China shares are now “uninvestable.” David Tepper’s Appaloosa Management dumped Qiyi and Baidu shares while reducing Alibaba holdings by half.
firms which include big names like Baidu, Tencent, JD.com, Didi, and Meituan. The CCP and its leader Xi Jinping are of the view that tech companies are becoming too powerful in the country — they could weaken the Party’s monopoly on data collection, as well as aid Xi’s entrenched political rivals. The companies most at risk of attracting Beijing’s scrutiny are those which have high exposure to the public since such firms have the biggest influence among people. “One thing that Xi Jinping doesn’t want are alternative centers of power to be created… It’s what hap-
That means disclosing the political and regulatory risk that the government of China could, as they’ve done a number of times recently, significantly change the rules in the middle of the game. —— SEC chair Gary Gensler said
George Soros’ Soros Fund Management dumped several Chinese stocks in the second quarter including Baidu, Tencent Music Entertainment, Vipshop, and iQiyi. Activist investor Dan Loeb of Third Point cut down his JD.com holdings by 12 percent. Both Soros and Loeb’s funds had taken a position in Didi. China’s tech crackdown came to the fore last year when Alibaba founder Jack Ma gave a speech that October apparently criticizing the country’s financial system. Since then, Beijing has increased scrutiny on over 30 domestic tech
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pened in Russia in the 1990s (after the collapse of the Soviet Union)… We saw the creation of the oligarch class, who quickly became political activists… So with the crackdown in China, they are eliminating or cutting down to size the tech billionaires who were getting too powerful and perhaps too popular,” Richard McGregor, China expert and senior fellow at the Lowy Institute, said to ABC News. Many Chinese moguls are connected to the powerful Jiang Zemin faction, which dominated Chinese politics for more than a decade prior to Xi taking office in 2012.
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‘No IPOs for unaccountable actors’
Beijing’s tech crackdown has prompted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to take action in order to protect American investors. In a public statement issued on July 30, SEC chair Gary Gensler noted the risks associated with Chinese companies using Variable Interest Entities (VIEs). China does not allow foreign ownership of companies in several sectors. To bypass this disadvantage, Chinese companies use VIEs. In such an arrangement, the Chinese firm establishes an offshore company outside China, like in the Cayman Islands. This offshore shell company enters into service and other contracts with the China-based operating company and subsequently issues shares in stock exchanges. However, the shell company has no equity in the original Chinese company. “For U.S. investors, this arrangement creates ‘exposure’ to the China-based operating company, though only through a series of service contracts and other contracts… I worry that average investors may not realize that they hold stock in a shell company rather than a China-based operating company,” Gensler said in the statement. Gensler directed SEC staff to make sure that offshore IPO issuers clearly disclose the fact that investors are only buying ownership in shell companies and that such companies face uncertainty 212-730-696
with regard to future actions by the Chinese government. On Aug. 17, Gensler uploaded a video to Twitter in which the SEC chair revealed that he has asked the department’s staff to take “a pause for now” in green-lighting IPOs of Chinese shell companies. He wants American investors to have more information about how such firms are structured. “That means disclosing the political and regulatory risk that the government of China could, as they’ve done a number of times recently, significantly change the rules in the middle of the game,” Gensler said in the video. Republican Senator Marco Rubio lauded the SEC’s move to protect American investors. In a July 30 statement, he called the SEC action to increase disclosure and transparency of Chinese companies as “long overdue.” Rubio called on the Biden administration to support his “No IPOs For Unaccountable Actors Act.” The legislation seeks to prohibit Chinese companies that do not comply with U.S. regulators from issuing IPOs on American exchanges. “No American’s savings should be used to fund communist China’s rise, and this is the only way we can actually protect Americans and cut off Beijing’s exploitation of our capital markets,” Rubio said in a statement.
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CHINA
VISION TIMES By Prakash Gogoi Vision Times
T
he People’s Republic of China (PRC) was one of the first countries to rush forward to legitimize the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Beijing will “respect the wishes and choices of the Afghan people.” According to an article published in the state-run Global Times, Chinese firms are now preparing to “monetize” from Taliban rule. “While much uncertainty remains, given the fluid situation in Afghanistan, there are huge opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries, especially in sectors such as utilities and mining, if the country under the Taliban’s leadership pursues peace and development after years of war… The Taliban held an open attitude toward cooperation with China, even before it entered Kabul,” the article stated. As of 2020, Chinese businesses held infrastructure contracts worth $110 million in Afghanistan. Many large projects have been stalled due to regional instability. Petrochina, a state-backed oil, and gas company won a contract to develop oil fields in Sar-ipul and Faryab. The deal, which is valid for 25 years, was signed 10 years ago in 2011. But the project has been inactive. In 2007, China Metallurgical Group Corp (MCC Group) won the right to mine deposits at the Aynak Copper Mine project for 30 years. The site is the world’s second-largest copper mine. The project remains non-operational due to safety issues. China is also investing in Afghanistan’s power sector. In May, a group of PRC companies planned to invest $400 million into a coal-powered electricity generation project. The plant will raise the country’s power generation capacity by 50 percent and will have an installed capacity of 300 megawatts. The project is yet to be finalized. The article noted that there is a “major power shift” in Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal. It enables Chinese projects to resume with more “win-win cooperation” between the two countries. In a meeting with PRC officials on July 28, Taliban
AUG 27 - SEP 2, 2021 |
Eying Mineral Wealth
political commission representative Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar expressed hopes that China would be more involved in Afghanistan’s economic development.
‘Cash In’
Communist China is interested in Afghanistan because it’s a treasure trove of mineral deposits. That includes rare earth elements which are critical in the production of computer chips that power high-tech devices. GPS systems, drones, hypersonic missiles, stealth aircraft, satellites, electric vehicles, and wind turbines all use rare earth elements at some stage of production. Former Brexit party leader Nigel Farage wrote in an opinion piece published in Newsweek that salt, gold, and oil historically have been essential to global economies; now, it’s lithium, an industrial metal critical to building electric vehicle batteries. Afghanistan has some of the largest deposits of lithium in the world, with an estimated worth of $1 trillion to $3 trillion.
China Prepares to
on
Mining opportunities
Taliban Takeover
Communist China is interested in Afghanistan because it’s a treasure trove of mineral deposits. “The bad news is that Joe Biden’s decision to pull American troops out of that country has unilaterally—and literally—handed all of the potential bound up in those lithium deposits to Chinese communists,” Farage writes. Lithium deposits in Afghanistan were first discovered by the Soviet Union in the 1980s, a time when demand was relatively low. A Pentagon memo from 2010 stated that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium.” China is already the global leader in rare earth production. Almost 35 percent of the world’s rare earths reserves are in China, and the country accounts for 70 percent of global production. If Beijing is able to build a strong influence in Afghanistan, the communist regime could strengthen its hold on the global rare earths industry. An Afghan child looks on as he works at a coal mine which collapsed on April 30 , 2014. (Image:Farshad Usyan/AFP via Getty Images)
Two More Cities in China’s Henan Issue Highest Flood Warning After Thousands Died in Provincial Capital By Leo Timm Vision Times
The cities of Xingyang and Changyuan in central China’s Henan Province have raised flood control levels from I to II, the highest in the country’s four-tier scale, as local authorities warn that
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floods of unprecedented strength could occur simultaneously and cause dam collapses. Made on Sunday, Aug. 22, the announcements come a month after massive floods in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, caused the deaths of at least several thousand people, based on footage taken in the city and eyewitness accounts.
Official figures put the number of fatalities in the hundreds. “This summer’s rains are adding pressure on China’s economy, already struggling with sporadic cases of Delta strain of coronavirus,” Reuters reports. Some factories have been forced to halt production because of the floods. Henan’s newest flood alerts
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came after the region forecasted that over 100 mm, or four inches, of rain would fall within three hours. Other flood warnings have been issued in southwest China’s Sichuan Province and Heilongjiang, Northeast China. Last week, Chinese premier Li Keqiang announced that officials in Zhengzhou were being disciplined
over their disastrous response to the floods in that city, during which residents were given very little forewarning. The waters trapped people in the subway system and in a congested tunnel, leading to the large number of apparent deaths. In light of the flood warnings, Henan suspended port and wharf production, while trains to and from Zhengzhou experienced delays and cancellations. Schools, public transit, and some businesses have been shuttered until at least the evening of Aug. 23.
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Japanese Military Planes Deploy on Rescue Mission to Afghanistan By Kalina Valqurey Vision Times
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NORTH KOREA
Is Trying to Build a Border Wall With China
But Can’t Get It Finished Photo taken from the Chinese city of Dandong shows a North Korean soldier standing guard near the border between North Korea and China on April 26, 2021. (:Image: Kyodo News via Getty Images)
By Leo Timm Vision Times
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espite being generally aligned with Communist China, totalitarian North Korea has long tried to keep its citizens from venturing across the countries’ shared border for work and opportunities to defect to South Korea. To retain more people, the ruling Korean Workers Party aims to complete a “bulletproof” concrete wall and highvoltage electric fencing along the boundary by Oct. 10 — in time for the Party’s founding day celebrations — but a lack of supplies and food is delaying the effort. According to a source cited by DailyNK, military officers have sold much of the supplies intended for the wall so as to feed the soldiers who are supposed to be working on it. “So many supplies need to be sent to different sectors of the people’s economy,” the source told DailyNK, which reported the story on Aug. 18. “This means that the authorities aren’t properly supplying the construction work along the border.” The source believes that the military has only been provided with 40 percent
of what was needed for the construction, and what they have received is being sold in order to buy food for the mobilized soldiers. According to DailyNK’s source, personnel from the Korean People’s Army construction, engineering, and road bureaus have been deployed to the effort. The number of troops deployed would be enough to complete the work were there enough materials; instead, progress has been extremely slow. Work teams are refashioning the materials left over to complete as much of the project as possible.
Starving soldiers rob civilians, get beaten to death in retaliation
Due to its strict isolation and repression, North Korea is a chronic victim of famine and malnutrition. Even soldiers cannot have their rations guaranteed, especially with severe floods, African swine flu, and the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the country in recent months and years. Soldiers becoming bandits and robbing civilian communities for their food has become a frequent phenomenon in parts of the country outside of the capital, Pyongyang. According to the source who
spoke with DailyNK, soldiers sometimes kill locals when caught in the act; others are captured instead and set upon by angry villagers, then “beaten to a pulp.” Both central and local governments, as well as the higher leadership of the military, have failed to care for malnourished soldiers, whose bellies are swollen and their limbs stick-like. Under these circumstances, North Korean logistics units have often taken matters into their own hands to keep soldiers from starving or breaking the law. “Logistics officials who are tasked with feeding the troops have nothing, and they’re getting no help from either the localities or from Pyongyang. So they’re [selling] rebar, cement and sand and buying freshly harvested potatoes or corn to feed the soldiers,” said the source. “Nobody is coming to check, so they are secretly pilfering the supplies and using them to feed the troops.” The construction materials are typically bought up by the donju, the word for North Korea’s black market entrepreneurs (officially, almost the entire economy is run by the state). According to DailyNK, the military men are “ignorant of the market value of what they are selling,” allowing the donju to profit greatly.
hree Japanese Air SelfDefense Force (SDF) aircraft are nestled near Afghanistan in an undisclosed country after flying from Japan on Monday to await the go-ahead from American forces in Afghanistan. They are on an extraction mission to remove Japanese nationals and local staff of the Japanese embassy in Afghanistan amidst the deteriorating situation. A diplomatic source described them as a C-2 transport plane and two C-130s. According to Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, the deployment is planned to last until the end of the month, coinciding with the US military pullout from Afghanistan. This is the first time the SDF has evacuated Japanese foreign nationals from a country, according to the source at the Defense Ministry. After receiving the prompt from US personnel in Afghanistan, the C-130’s will make roundtrips for extraction of their nationals from the airport in Kabul. The dire situation reported at the airport poses a security risk. The C-2 plane carries hundreds of personnel from the Ground and Air Self-Defense Forces, as well as equipment and supplies. The Defense Ministry said most of the staff will be based in the nearby country. Top government spokesman Cabinet Secretary-General Katsunobu Kato explained that under international law, the Japanese Self-Defense Force typically cannot deploy within another country without approval from that country. He explained that this instance is different and will not pose a problem to international law, as it is an emergency and only for evacuating Japanese nationals.
Delta Fears: Financial Institutions Cut US Growth Estimates By Prakash Gogoi Vision Times
S
everal financial institutions have scaled back their U.S. growth expectations for the third quarter. The reduced forecasts come amidst sluggish consumer spending and the country remains under the threat of measures related to the COVID19 Delta variant. According to the Commerce Department, consumer spending at retailers fell by 1.1 percent in July when compared to June. In a note written to clients, Bank of America (BOA) economists Michelle Meyer and Alexander Lin suggested that consumers had scaled back their spending due to fear of the Delta variant spreading throughout the country. There is an increase in “precautionary www.visiontimes.com
savings” by households as they’ve grown wary of the future, the bank said. In addition, constraints in supply chains have made some products either unavailable or pricey. The economists warned that if supply remains permanently constrained, it could lead to higher inflation and a “shorter economic cycle.” If the supply returns to full capacity but only after a long time, it could “flatten the path for growth.” In its “Global Macro Snapshot” report published on Aug. 20, BOA said that they are “very cautious” about the country’s near-term outlook. On another note, BOA global economist Ethan Harris warns that the United States has hit a “big supply-side speedbump, traveling at 80 mph.” Job openings are setting new records, inventories have
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fallen, and an increasing share of nominal GDP is being absorbed in higher prices rather than higher real GDP. However, fears about the Delta variant had restricted services spending by consumers, thus affecting the economy. The service sectors where consumer spending has remained depressed were found to be associated with “high virus risk,” and include live entertainment, ground transportation,
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dry cleaners, and so on. “While most consumers appear to be comfortable returning to high-contact services, some are still hesitant… They are likely to remain cautious for now as the spread of the Delta variant keeps Covid fears alive, delaying a full recovery,” Walker said in the note. Goldman Sachs slashed its GDP growth projections by one percentage point for the third and fourth quarters. For the full year, the bank expects GDP growth to be around 6.6 percent. Starting next year, the growth rate is expected to be back at the pre-pandemic level of around 1.5 to two percent annually. According to Moody’s Analytics Weekly business confidence index, sentiment has gone sideways since mid-June. The number of respondents who believe the economy will continue improving fell from over 212-730-696
60 percent to less than 50. Those who believe the economy will weaken rose from around 30 percent to over 40. Moody’s Back-toNormal Index, which measures how far the American economy is from the pre-pandemic level, fell from 93.5 percent in June to 92 in mid-August. Despite these numbers, Zandi remains optimistic with regard to the short-term and long-term prospects of the U.S. economy. Pent-up demand paired with savings people built up during the pandemic is fueling growth. In addition, support from the Federal Reserve and assistance programs from Washington is also contributing to the growth of the economy. However, Zandi also points out that his optimism is purely based on the expectation that the Delta variant does not go berserk and worsen the pandemic.
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WORLD
VISION TIMES
AUG 27 - SEP 2, 2021 |
Australian Police Use Tear Gas, Rubber Bullets Against Anti-Lockdown Demonstrators By Neil Campbell Vision Times
A protester gestures towards police officers on August 21, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. Andrews characterized the protests as “disgusting,” and called citizens “a mob” that was “intent of having a fight.”
A
ustralian law enforcement utilized pepper spray, rubber bullets, and tear gas against thousands of angry citizens who participated in a large scale protest in Melbourne in the State of Victoria on August 21 after being subject to more than 200 days of lockdown since the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic first began. On August 4, Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews entered its sixth so-called “snap lockdown,” originally scheduled to last for 7 days. The lockdown was once again extended by at least an additional two weeks. Victorian MP James Newbury, a member of the opposition party, sounded the alarm on the tangible side effects lockdowns take on public health in an August
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17 tweet, “Today, there are 12 Victorians in hospital with COVID—2 in ICU. This week, 148 teenagers will be rushed to hospital after self-harming and suffering suicidal thoughts. The mental health shadow
pandemic is real.” Lifeline Australia, a mental health hotline, reported it had “smashed” a record high daily volume of incoming calls on August 20 at 3,505. The previous record was set just
A7
four days later on August 16 at 3,436. According to data from Google, on August 4, Victoria with its nearly 6.7 million residents registered 6 positive PCR tests. That number has slowly climbed to 66 on August 21, producing a 7-day average of 44, numbers that are comparatively very low in the developed world. Victoria Police Commissioner Shane Patton said on August 22 that the state would likely shutter public transport to prevent future protests, “To shut down the transport network to prevent people coming in…that’s a huge call, but it’s one that we’re now going to seriously entertain on the next occasion because I’m not going to tolerate this occurring again,” he told reporters. “They’re not entitled to put their views above the law. I just hope it doesn’t result in any mass spread of COVID-19,” said Patton, who claimed the 4,000 strong protest was “one of the most violent protests we’ve seen in nearly 20 years.” The issue at hand seems to be a case of vaccine acceptance. Australia has a notoriously low uptake rate at only 18 percent being double dosed in early August.
Human rights lawyer Kimberly Motley stated that the Taliban was going door to door and “taking
girls out,” forcing them to become
child brides.
PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images
OKLAHOMA WOMAN FLIES TO MIDDLE EAST By Prakash Gogoi Vision Times
A
llyson Reneau, a 60-year-old mother of 11 and grandmother of 8 from Oklahoma, is making headlines for helping 10 girls from Afghanistan escape the country amidst the crisis unraveling in Kabul. The 10 teenagers are members of the Afghan Girls Robotic Team. They were hailed in the West as the future of Afghanistan. After the Taliban took over the country, there is fear that the insurgent group will shut down education for females. The robotics team was apparently “terrified” for their future. In an interview with Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC), human rights lawyer Kimberly Motley stated that the Taliban was going door to door and “taking girls out,” forcing them to become child brides. “We are very, very concerned of that happening with this Afghan girls robotics team – these girls that want to be engineers, they want to be in the AI community and they dare to dream to succeed,” Motley said. She added that the girls were “literally begging” the Canadian government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to allow them entry into Canada. Reneau had met the girls, who are between 16 and 18 years of age, back in 2019 at the Humans to Mars summit in Washington while they were in America for a robotics www.visiontimes.com
TO SAVE 10 AFGHAN GIRLS
competition. Over the years, she kept in touch with them. As it became clear that the Taliban would take over Afghanistan, Reneau became concerned for the teenagers. She “couldn’t shake” the feeling that they would soon be in danger. Reneau first called Republican Senator Jim Inhofe for help. However, the senator was busy dealing with the issues of American citizens trapped in Afghanistan. So, Reneau took a flight to Qatar on Aug. 9. “I remembered my former roommate in D.C. a couple of years ago was transferred to Qatar… She said she worked in the U.S. Embassy in Qatar… she was sure her boss would approve helping the girls,” Reneau said to NBC. Together, Reneau and her former roommate finished the necessary paperwork. The Qatar government sent a plane to Afghanistan and flew the girls out. The teenagers are reportedly in a secure location in the
United States and will soon be able to pursue higher education. According to Elizabeth Schaeffer Brown, a board member on the Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), the parent organization of the girls’ team, she and the DCF founder had been working with Qatar since the beginning of August when it became clear that Taliban would come into power. “The flight out of Kabul was only at the very end of a journey in which safety was always a concern… Ultimately the girls ‘rescued’ themselves. If it were not for their hard work and courage to pursue an education, which brought them in contact with the world, they would still be trapped. We need to continue to support them and others like them,” Brown said.
No country for women
In an Instagram post, Reneau stated that she was receiving “heartbreaking messages”
Reneau traveled to Qatar to help rescue 10 Afghan girls who are members of the country's robotics team. In this view from Reneau’s Instagram page, she is pictured here when she first met the girls at a summit in 2019. (Image: allyson_reneau via Instagram )
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Members of the Afghan all-girls robotics team work with their robot in the practice area July 17, 2017.
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from many women in Afghanistan. Educated females are apparently being “fired from their jobs and are in hiding.” The post contained a screenshot of messages from an Afghan woman who requested Reneau for help to flee the country. The woman said that the Taliban “looks at us” as an enemy. Reneau is currently working to get 25 more Afghan girls from the robotics team to safety. Though the Taliban has announced that it would ensure women’s rights are protected under the regime, not many trust such statements. “There’s already a level of fear of not being able to go to the street, of not being able to go to university tomorrow, of not being able to go to work next week, next year,” Inna Michaeli, director of programs at the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, said to NBC News. In an interview with CNBC, Brookings Institution researcher Vanda Felbab-Brown said that there is “no chance” that the current freedoms for women existing in Afghanistan will be preserved under Taliban rule. Heather Barr, interim co-director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, stated in an August 17 article that there is a “major disconnect” between what the Taliban says to the media and what happens in reality. She pointed out that the Taliban’s local commanders have shut down girls’ schools in recent months. Though the Taliban spokesman has pledged to respect women’s rights, “his claims ring more hollow than ever,” the article said.
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NATURE
A8 | AUG 27- SEP 2 , 2021
VISION TIMES
By Ila Bonczek
O
ne of the most magical sights of summer is the rural landscape lit up by fireflies at dusk. Reminiscent of twinkling stars come to Earth, or even fairy lights, they transport you to another world of enchantment and awe.
Practical scientific applications
Varied mythical origins
It is no wonder these tiny beacons of light carry spiritual significance and have inspired folklore the world over. As nocturnal members of the Lampyridae family, (derived from the Greek word
“lampein,”
meaning “to shine”) fireflies are actually beetles. While there are over 2000 species of these insects, they are not all equipped with the ability to produce light. That ability manifests as a chemical process whereby certain species mix oxygen with the pigment luciferin, causing a chemical reaction so efficient that nearly all of the energy becomes light.
There may be as many myths revolving around the origin of fireflies as there are countries where they are found. Chinese folklore held that fireflies came from burning grasses, while the Japanese believed they were the souls of dead warriors who fell in battle. The Apache tribe of Native Americans had a legend about a fox who stole fire from the “Firefly Village” and fled, passing the fire on to the Hawk, who then scattered the embers around the world, bringing fire to the people. Taiwan has a tragic tale of a motherless girl and her sister. After their father was delayed on business and failed to come home one night, the carefree and impulsive younger sister ran off to find him alone. The older sister, named Kim-ko, went out into the black of night, blindly searching for her lost sister. Groping her way through the forest, she prayed to the gods for light to guide her to her only sibling. In the morning, the villagers found Kim-ko’s dead body in a pool of water, with glowing orbs floating all about her. The gods had answered her prayer, but too late. She had stumbled into a body of water and drowned. Since then, the Taiwanese have called fireflies Hóe-kim-ko, literally “Fiery Maiden of Gold” after their tragic heroine. While Victorians fostered a tradition whereby a firefly found in the house meant that someone was about to perish, we can take this with a giant grain of salt, as they were a fairly gloomy lot to begin with. Most populations associate the insect with hope and inspiration. Ancient peoples considered them effective as a remedy for a wide range of maladies, including poison and evil spirits.
A visual Morse code
As you may have guessed, the intermittent glow that these beetles emit is a form of communication. Fireflies use their bright behinds to attract a mate. The flashing pattern varies by species, but generally a male will fly about, signaling that he is in search of a single glowing female. The female, not in flight, will answer with an appropriate flash if and when she takes an interest. In most cases this works quite admirably. However there are villains in the insect world as well. One species of fireflies is a known cannibal, and will mimic the proper female response for another species, luring the hopeful male down to become her dinner. There are also synchronous fireflies in certain areas, like the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Tens-of-thousands of Photinus carolinus males gather together and synchronize their flash, a stunning effect for viewers. Due creating to limited parking, only 1000 visitors per evening are permitted to see the fireflies at their peak in popular Elkmont Campground.
The chemical reaction responsible for fireflies’ enchanting glow may have practical applications in at least two areas. Cancer researchers have found that, when inserted into malignant cells modified with a photosensitizer (i.e. the enzyme luciferase), Luciferin (the compound substrate that produces a firefly’s bioluminescence) creates enough light to destroy the cell. Since the light is generated within the cell itself, this treatment eliminates the need for the use of lasers or other light beams. Engineers are turning to botany at MIT, where they have applied the firefly’s glow to living plants. Using nanoparticles infused with the proper ingredients to trigger the chemical reaction, these researchers have successfully transformed several plants into live lamps, with the proposed potential to reduce energy usage.
The fading light
While these tiny twinklers continue to inspire new research all the time, their numbers are on decline. Starting their lives as larvae, most species inhabit the lower layer of wooded areas with a nearby water source. Dead wood and leaf litter provide food in the form of snails, slugs, and worms during this growing stage. When ready to metamorphose into a beetle, they pupate in a mud chamber underground. Emerging adults have the sole purpose of reproducing, and do not stray from their locale. Thus, when these marginal areas are cleaned up and paved over, the fireflies are lost, rather than relocated. Property owners wishing to maintain a firefly-friendly habitat, should allow a stretch of wooded area to remain natural and untidy. Even if you have only a small garden, you can leave some decaying plant matter for larval firefly food, rather than stripping everything pristine clean for the neighbors. This is good for other beneficial insects as well, like native bees. A tiny light in the dark can serve as a sign of hope, an inspiration and even a guide. Let us do what we can to preserve that light.
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CULTURE
VISION TIMES
AUG 27 - SEP 2, 2021 |
A9
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Heroes of Ancient China:
THE TR AINING OF DAOIST M ASTER
LAO ZI By Lucy Crawford
L
ao Zi (also known as Lao Tzu), living between circa 600 and 470 B.C. during the Spring and Autumn Period, wrote the famous Dao De Ching and is the central figure in the development of Daoism. As a child, he was intelligent, meditative, and well-read, often pestering his family to hear about the rise and fall of the state, battles between states, rituals and divination, astrological observations, and much more. Recognizing the boy’s remarkable intelligence, his mother invited the renowned scholar Shang Rong to be his teacher. Shang Rong was wellversed in astronomy, geography, and ancient and modern rituals and was highly respected by the family.
The origin of divine power
Another time, Teacher Shang told him, “Heaven, Earth, humans and a multitude of other things exist in the universe. Heaven has its principles, and Earth has its laws; human beings have ethics, and objects have physical properties. Therefore, Heaven has the sun, the moon, and the stars in motion; Earth has seas, mountains, rivers and oceans; there exist superiors and inferiors, the old and young among
Why does the divine allow war ? On another occasion, his teacher told him, “Regarding all things under Heaven, harmony is the best option. Without harmony, there would be war. In war, both sides suffer, and neither benefits. Therefore, being good to others really benefits oneself, and harming others is equivalent to harming oneself.” Lao Zi asked, “Losing harmony causes great harm to people. So why doesn’t the sovereign do something about it?” His teacher replied, “When people fight among themselves, it only upsets the harmony a little; the trouble is insignificant, and the sovereign can take care of it. If the fight is between states, then the harmony is overturned, the consequences are massive. If it is the sovereign who is to blame, then how can the sovereign resolve it?” www.visiontimes.com
What is above the purest being?
In his teachings, Shang once said, “Between Heaven and Earth people are superior, and among all people the sovereign is the principal.” “What is Heaven?” Lao Zi asked. “Heaven is a pure being high above,” his teacher replied. “What is a pure being?” “A pure being is the firmament.” “What’s beyond the firmament?” Lao Zi asked again. “An even purer being exists there.”
Heaven, then he should be abolished; if the subjects refuse to follow the sovereign, they would be committing a sin. This is the way of governance.” “The subjects are not here for the sovereign, and not obeying the sovereign is understandable. However, if a sovereign is born by the will of Heaven. Why would he ever go against Heaven?” Lao Zi questioned. “The Gods entrust sovereigns to take care of the affairs in the human world on their behalf. When a sovereign is born, it’s like sending a general to a faraway battlefield, so he is not bound directly by orders from his own sovereign. Thus, a sovereign at times goes against the heavenly mandate,” replied his teacher. “The divine have the ability to change and the power to create. Why don’t they just create a sovereign who acts according to their will?” But again Teacher Shang said:“I dare not speculate, as the wise men in earlier times did not pass down anything in this regard and there is no record about this in ancient books.” In the evening, Lao Zi posed these questions to those in his household, and again, none of them could give him an answer. He visited all the distinguished local scholars to seek knowledge, so concentrated in his quest that he felt neither wet from rain nor parched from the wind.
“What is above the purest being?” Lao Zi inquired further. “I dare not speculate as nothing has been passed on by the earlier sages and there has been no record of this in the ancient books,” his teacher said humbly. That evening, Lao Zi pursued these questions with his family, but no one could give him an answer. Staring into the sky and lost in his thoughts, he lay awake all night.
How could the sovereign go against Heaven?
One day, Teacher Shang taught, “A sovereign acts on behalf of Heaven; the subjects are those ruled by the sovereign. If the sovereign goes against the will of
Lao Zi surpasses his teacher
Lao Zi wondered aloud, “If the sovereign cannot handle it, why doesn’t the divine take care of it?” Again the same humble words from his teacher: “I dare not speculate, as the great ones in earlier times did not pass down anything in this regard and there was no record about this in ancient books.” In the evening, Lao Zi asked his household members the same question, and still, no one had an answer. Again, he visited all the distinguished local scholars and read all the books available to search for answers, so fixated that he did not sense heat or coldness.
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human beings; and among physical objects, some are long, some are short, some are strong and others are fragile.” “Who put the sun, the moon, and stars in motion then?” Lao Zi asked, “Who created mountains, rivers and oceans? Who sorts human beings into those categories, and who bestows physical attributes to objects?” “It’s all done by the divine,” his teacher replied. “How can the divine do all of this?” “The divine has the ability to change and the power to create, so they can do all of these things,” replied his teacher. “But where did that power come from, and when did they start to have these powers?” “I dare not speculate,” said his teacher, “as the teachers in earlier times did not pass down anything in this regard and I have seen no record about this in the ancient books.” In the evening, Lao Zi asked his mother and the rest of his household the same questions, but no one could answer him. He reflected on what the teacher said day and night, so focused that he did not taste the food he was eating for three days.
Three years went by. One day, Shang Rong went to Lao Zi’s mother and said, “My knowledge is too shallow to continue teaching your very intelligent son. I’m here to say farewell, not because I don’t want to teach him or because he is not diligent, but because I have already taught him all that I know, and yet it is not enough to satisfy his endless thirst for knowledge.” “I find it hard to continue,” the teacher confessed, “Your son is a boy with far-reaching aspirations yet lives in a remote region. If you want to polish his extraordinary potential, you must send him to the capital, where there are an abundance of books and a great gathering of scholars. It’s a holy land under Heaven; he won’t be able to achieve great success without going there.”
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Lao Zi’s mother became worried at this suggestion, and thought, “Lao Tzu is only 13 years old and he is my only son. How can I let him go that far all by himself? And I can’t afford it.” Sensing her concern, Teacher Shang said, “You know, a friend of mine is serving in the imperial college of the Zhou Dynasty court. As a scholar, he cherishes talented people. I have told him about your son and he could take the boy under his wing.” Thus, it was settled. Lao Zi left his hometown for Zhou. He was admitted into the imperial college and studied all disciplines of knowledge, including astronomy, geography, and ethics. He also studied cultural relics, various decrees, regulations, and history books. 212-730-696
Lao Zi made significant progress and became a clerk in the Archive Chamber of the Zhou court three years later. It allowed him access to a massive collection of classics, essays, and books. He was truly in his element; every day he buried himself in a sea of books, rituals, and music, as well as the essence of moral and ethical principles. Three years after that, at the age of 19, he was promoted to be the Keeper of the Archives for the royal court of Zhou. He became well known, and his name spread across the land. However, Lao Zi still could not find answers for the questions that stumped Teacher Shang. It was his search for these answers that would lead him to discover the Dao or Way.
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LIFESTYLE
A10 | AUG 27- SEP 2 , 2021
VISION TIMES Adobe Stock
Backyard
Chickens: USE F U L, E A S Y & A MUSING PETS
By Ila Bonczek
A
f te r p ork , p ou lt r y i s t he mo st w ide l y e ate n f le sh fo o d i n t he w orld . W it h t he
b onu s pr o du c t of e g g s, it i s no w onde r he n s a r e a com mon c hoic e for f a r me r s . Yet these birds can be much more than a meal. Domestic chicken-keeping has been on the rise, especially during these uncertain times with pandemic measures re-shaping our lives. While it may not be your first thought when it comes to pets, a small feathered flock can offer a number of benefits, while providing uplifting entertainment and companionship as well. Whether you start with chicks or old layers, it won’t take long to learn to love them.
One of t he easiest p e t s to c a r e for Chickens are fairly good at fending for themselves. Their needs are simple and they do not require a lot of attention. They do need shelter – something good and solid to keep the many predators at bay, with the right amount of space, and with easy access for cleaning and egg gathering. You can buy a premade coop, or, if you are handy, build one yourself. They need feed and water, of course. Depending on whether you can let them roam free about your property, you may need to feed them more or less. If you choose to buy organic feed the cost will be significantly higher, but then you can be sure that your eggs are GMO free, and untainted with Monsanto’s many poisons. There are far more things that they do not need. Chickens do not need to be taken on walks. They get plenty of exercise scratching around all day, and they won’t make messes in your house. They do not threaten or annoy the neighbors. As long as you keep your coop at a distance from neighboring homes, the sometimes unpleasant smell will not reach others’ noses. You do not need to worry about grooming your chickens. An area of dry earth provides a dust bath for the birds, whereby they eliminate any undesirable creatures on their bodies and keep their plumage clean. You should clean out their coop periodically, but nothing like a litter box. Many believe that the presence of concentrated manure in your coop actually helps keep away parasitic pests like mites and fleas, and only clean it out a couple of times per year. Continuing to layer straw or wood shavings over the fresh droppings will keep the manure from getting dry and dusty, and eliminate strong odors as well. Your flock will naturally go in at night to roost, and then all you need to do is lock the door. The biggest concern with chicken care is protecting them from the countless critters with designs to devour them, mainly at night.
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B e s t bug c ont r ol
Fe at he r e d f r ie nd s
Chickens are omnivores, and will eat F r e e fe r t i l i z e r most anything you put in front of them, but as descendants of jungle fowl, wild chick- a nd fo s te r c a r e ens still found in Indonesia, their natuIf you have a garden, one of the greatest ral diet consists mainly of foraged insects, benefits you will reap from keeping birds is high quality manure. Chicken droppings grubs and worms. Although it is safe to give them a are rich in nitrogen, which makes them variety of grains and even food great fertilizer for plants. The manure is scraps, you’ll want to be extremely concentrated and needs careful to avoid avocato be properly composted before dos, dried beans, chocouse, however. Five to six weeks is late, green sufficient to reduce tomathe ammonia contoes or tent, or “cool” the A l t h o u g h it i s s a fe t o manure, so that potato it doesn’t burn skins, g i v e t he m a v a r ie t y o f your plants. sweets, and anything Since broody g ra i n s a n d e v e n fo o d mouldy, hens ma ke s c ra p s , y o u’l l w a nt good mothers, which can make allowing a hen t o b e c a r e f u l t o a v oi d them ill. to hatch eggs Ideally, let into chicks is a v o c a d o s , d r ie d b e a n s , the flock roam the most effic h o c o l a t e, g r e e n about eatcient way to ing the bugs raise young t o ma t o e s o r p o t a t o out of your birds. In fact, skins, sweets, and lawn and garbroody hens den. They may are often used a n y t hi n g m o u l d y, peck at your in place of incubators to hatch greens and w hi c h c a n fruits a bit, but eggs for other ma k e t he m il l . the benefit of species. Many pest control will hens are faithful sitters, and will outweigh the damkeep trying to hatch age done. While some people have gone so far as lifeless eggs until you actually take them to supplement their flock’s feed with fresh away. Like with most animals, the mothers maggots, obtained by keeping a piece of are often fierce protectors of their young, rotting flesh in a hanging cage, this sort and do not shy from attacking of thing is exactly what attracts raccoons predators. and rats to your chicken run. Giving them any sort of meat or dairy, or even root vegetables that are too big for them to consume, is likely to bring unwanted animals around which will threaten the welfare of your birds.
A flock of birds can be like a member of your extended family. In a way, it acts as one entity, with a common purpose, activity, habit, and character. As you get to know your flock, however, you will see that each bird has its own personality and traits often similar to those of humans. There will be proud, greedy, curious, anxious, stern, and playful members of your flock, and they will need to sort out their differences daily. One can learn a good deal in observing a whole community like this. While you may get some who follow you about, hop onto your shoulder, or like to be petted, most of the flock will stick to their own kind rather than seeking your attention. But if a more intimate pet is what appeals to you, you can, in fact, keep one in your house. Individual birds are much more friendly, as they lack their natural companions. And while it takes time and perseverance, it is possible to litter-train a chicken. Although letting the chooks out, shutting them in, and giving them feed and water is their minimum daily requirement of your time, you may find yourself drawn to observe and interact with these endlessly fascinating fowls whenever time permits. Witnessing the clever ways they communicate with one another, and a mother hen’s fastidious care for her chicks may inspire respect and awe, or it may just make you laugh heartily. Either way, you win.
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HEALTH
VISION TIMES
AUG 27 - SEP 2, 2021 |
A11
AdobeStock
THE ‘MAGIC’ OF MUSHROOMS
(2)
Continued From the Previous Issue
If
your mushroom pallet is limited to buttons and portabellas, you’re missing out on a whole load of yum, and more vitamins and minerals than you can shake a stick at. An important protein and B vitamins source for vegetarians also contain compounds conducive to preventing and treating cancer.
By Ila Bonczek
Prevention and treatment of Cancer
While specific mushrooms have been used medicinally for decades in cancer treatment and tumor reduction, recent studies show that consuming more mushrooms, in general, can be an effective way to prevent cancer. After reviewing 17 studies dating from 1966 to 2020 involving 19,500 cancer patients, Penn State researchers found that the consumption of as little as ¼ cup of mushrooms per day reduced the risk of developing cancer by 45 percent. The risk reduction was even more pronounced with breast cancer specifically. “Overall, these findings provide important evidence for the protective effects of mushrooms against cancer,” said Professor John Richie, author of the study. Bioactive compounds and micronutrients found in mushrooms, along with the aforementioned vitamins and minerals, are considered integral to a healthy diet, while antioxidants are key in preventing disease. In particular, two sulfur
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antioxidants, glutathione, and ergothioneine promote healthy aging and protect against chronic diseases. “Mushrooms are the highest dietary source of ergothioneine, which is a unique and potent antioxidant and cellular protector. Replenishing antioxidants in the body may help protect against oxidative stress and lower the risk of cancer,” said study co-author Djibril Ba, a graduate student at Penn State. Not all mushrooms are created equal in terms of cancer-fighting compounds. Levels of ergothioneine and glutathione vary per species, making some mushrooms more effective in reducing cancer risk than others, although one will benefit from eating almost any edible mushrooms. According to Penn State Center for Plant and Mushroom Products for Health Director Robert Beelman, also a co-author of the study, “what we found is that, without a doubt, mushrooms are the highest dietary source of these two antioxidants taken together, and that some types are really packed with both of them.”
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Specific species
The Penn State study found shiitake, maitake, and oyster mushrooms to have high amounts of ergothioneine and glutathione but named porcini (Boletus edulis) the winner for the highest amounts of both antioxidants. Health Fitness Revolution listed the “Ten Healthiest Mushrooms” in a 2018 report. Many of the ten touted cancer-fighting properties. Reishi, or Lingzhi (靈芝) in Chinese, offers astounding health benefits. Besides being antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal, unique immune-boosting polysaccharides give this mushroom its reputation as an ancient symbol of longevity, while triterpenoid Gandoderic acid inhibits tumors eradicates cancerous cells. Shiitake, a surprisingly good source of vitamin D, is also rich in the anti-tumor compound called lentinan. One of the easiest mushrooms to grow at home, it is as delicious as it is nutritious. White Button, the most common culinary mushroom, has proven effective in preventing breast and colon cancer in humans and animals.
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Oysters, a large family of mushrooms consisting of over 200 species, are therapeutic and preventative for both breast and colon cancer. Specifically, consuming tea or alcohol extracts have shown to be beneficial. Maitake, especially helpful in controlling diabetes, is also a powerful immune booster with anticancer properties. Half a cup of maitake per day is said to “sweep the system” of abnormal cells while releasing killer cells that attack malignant intruders. Shimeji, features high levels of betaglucans, which help control asthma and boost the immune system’s healing capacity. According to the National Cancer Institute of Japan, beta-glucans can also retard and destroy growing tumors. Most of these mushrooms can be found either at health food or Asian groceries, and all can be consumed and enjoyed without dangerous side effects, unlike any conventional cancer treatment. So add some earthy magnificence to your diet today, and your body will thank you tomorrow!
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HEALTH
A12 | AUG 27- SEP 2 , 2021
VISION TIMES
To o M u c h
C
FFEE
SHRINKS THE BRAIN, S u g g e s t s New Study
By Darren Maung
Coffee may be a prime source of energy for many adults, and the beverage touts some health benefits as well, but too much of this stimulating substance may do more harm than good. While an excess of coffee has been known to contribute to loss of sleep, weight gain, anxiety, and the jitters; there is now evidence of a new risk associated with coffee consumption. Research and Discovery Nutritional Neuroscience published a recent study which recorded the levels of habitual coffee consumption of 17,700 participants from the U.K. Biobank between the ages of 37 and 73 years. Researchers also recorded the volume of the subjects’ brains via MRI. Kitty Pham, a PhD candidate who co-authored the study, said in a news release,“Coffee is among the most popular drinks in the world. Yet with global consumption being more than nine billion kilograms a year, it’s critical that we understand any potential health implications.” The completed study yielded rather chilling results, and no small concern for coffee drinkers everywhere.
Possible brain reduction From the data recorded, the team found an inverse relationship between coffee consumption and brain volume. The more coffee one drank, the higher the chances they were to experience a drop in relative total brain volume.
The specific parts of the brain that were affected include the hippocampus (learning and memory), gray matter (moving, memory and emotions) and white matter (thinking, motor function and balance). According to WebMD, white matter in the brain is connected with the aging process, which could accelerate if this area is negatively impacted. “This is the most extensive investigation into the connections between coffee, brain volume measurements, the risks of dementia, and the risks of stroke — it’s also the largest study to consider volumetric brain imaging data and a wide range of confounding factors.” explained Pham. Other than low brain volume, researchers have also discovered that, in addition to an increased chance of stroke, people who drank a lot of coffee have the same higher chance of dementia as those who drank decaf or didn’t drink coffee at all; in effect, they lost the benefit that some amount of coffee granted. Despite evidence that coffee can help reduce the risk among middle-aged drinkers, those who drank six cups a day, especially, would have their odds of dementia raised to an astonishing 53%.
Those who drank
6 cups a day would have their odds of dementia raised to
53% .
The Verdict While the recent discovery may be unsettling to coffee lovers, Professor Elina Hyppönen, senior investigator and Director of UniSA’s Australian Centre for Precision Health, says that there is a balance to be made between drinking and our health. “Of course, while unit measures can vary, a couple of cups of coffee a day is generally fine.” explained Professor Hyppönen. “However, if you’re finding that your coffee consumption is heading up toward more than six cups a day, it’s about time you rethink your next drink.” “This research provides vital insights about heavy coffee consumption and brain health, but as with many things in life, moderation is the key,” she added, while advising that water should be consumed alongside coffee to maintain proper hydration. Until further research determines the cause of these findings, it may be best to limit your daily cups of coffee, and keep in mind that there are alternative ways to start your day and keep your energy up without any risk of shrinking your brain.
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