WORLD NEWS
Biden announces $800M more in military aid; Putin declares victory in Mariupol: Live Ukraine updates
President Joe Biden announced additional military aid for Ukraine today totaling about $800 million, matching a drawdown of the same amount last week as Russia concentrates attacks on the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas.
“We will never fail in our efforts to defend freedom and oppose tyranny,” Biden said from the White House Roosevelt Room.
The announcement came the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in the battle for Mariupol, even as hundreds Ukrainian troops hold out in and around a sprawling steel plant in the city.
The latest infusion of security assistance brings the total U.S. aid to Ukraine during Biden’s presidency to about $4 billion, $3.4 billion of it since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The U.S. also will provide $500 million more in financial assistance for Ukraine to sustain critical government operations to help support salaries, pensions and other programs, Biden said.
Biden bans Russian-linked ships from U.S. ports
Joe Biden announced on Thursday the United States will ban Russian-affiliated ships from American ports, joining Canada and European nations,in the latest step to pressure Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The White House will release a proclamation with more details. Reuters first reported Biden’s planed action on Thursday and reported in early March the ban was under consideration by the White House.
China Developing Nuclear Arsenal ‘for Global Domination’: Expert
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is building up its nuclear arsenal as part of a greater effort to undermine the West and create a new international order in its own image, according to one expert.
“I don’t think [China is] building up its forces just for the deterrence factor,” said Peter Pry, Director of the U.S. nuclear strategy forum at the Center for Security Policy, a Washington-based think tank.
“I think it’s building up its nuclear forces for global domination.”
Pry made the comments during a recent interview with EpochTV’s “China Insider.” He said that U.S. leadership was too slow in adapting to the evolving threat of the CCP, in no small part because of the deep financial ties many American businesses have with China.
“We have been very slow to realize the consequences of neglecting our nuclear forces, and only now we’re waking up waking up to it,” Pry said.
“Many in Washington are still reluctant to accept that reality because many fortunes have been made in the West based on trade with China.”
Pry said that the CCP was playing a long strategic game with the buildup and modernization of its nuclear forces. A key goal of China’s nuclear program, he said, was to ensure that China could overcome Russia in the distant future, after the two nations’ partnership had pushed the United States out of its global leadership role.
“They don’t want to be inferior to Russia or anyone in their nuclear capabilities,” Pry said. “That’s why they’re building it up. It’s not just over Taiwan. It’s taking the long view. It’s looking at the strategic balance of power.”
Russia currently has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, with around 1,500 deployed nuclear weapons and 6,257 warheads in total. The United States is next, with about 1400 deployed systems and 5,550 warheads in total. Between 1,500-2,000 warheads in both nations’ arsenals are retired and awaiting disarmament.
Poland Refuses to Accept and Pay for New COVID-19 Vaccine Deliveries
Poland is refusing to accept or pay for more deliveries of the COVID-19 vaccine under the European Union’s supply contract, amid dwindling demand.
The country’s health minister announced the news in remarks on local television on Tuesday.
“At the end of last week, we used the force majeure clause and informed both the European Commission and the main vaccine producer that we are refusing to take these vaccines at the moment and we are also refusing to pay,” Niedzielski told private broadcaster TVN24.
Poland, alongside other members of the European Union, had been receiving doses of the COVID-19 vaccine throughout the pandemic under supply contracts agreed between the European Commission and vaccine manufacturers such as BioNTech, Pfizer, or Moderna.
Poland’s biggest supplier is Pfizer. Poland however has seen lower vaccine uptake than most of the European Union, leaving the country with surplus vaccine stock, part of which it has sold or donated to other countries.
Niedzielski said the Polish government triggered a force majeure clause after unsuccessful attempts to renegotiate the contracts. He said the government attempted to spread the 67 million doses it is due to receive this year across 10 years, and to pay only for the doses it has received.
“It’s a major financial burden,” Niedzielski said. “Poland is facing serious financial strains related to the influx of refugees.”
“Indeed, the consequence of this will be a legal conflict, which is already taking place,” he said.
The health minister said Poland cannot directly terminate the contract for the supply of vaccines as the parties to the contracts are the European Commission and manufacturers.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Florida Senate approves stripping Disney of self-government power
The House speaker set the stage for a day in which Republicans braced for Democrats to stall the passage of three bills, which included Gov. Ron DeSantis’ congressional map and two measures that punish Disney.
One of the bills would wipe out Disney’s 55-year-old government structure, the Reedy Creek Improvement District.
The district provides water, sewer, electric power and public safety for millions of visitors, employees and residents.
The other bill would jettison an exemption from the state’s new social media or “Big-Tech” law, which opens companies up to lawsuits, if they suspend or de-platform messaging, especially from politicians.
House Democrats unsuccessfully motioned for the bills to be heard in committee, especially the congressional map.
The congressional map includes putting aside one million taxpayer dollars for legal action, which it is certain to face.
Ray Rodrigues, a Republican Senate redistricting chair said, “Do we pass a map that fulfills our constitutional responsibility?”
Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Moves to Intervene in Case Brought by John Durham
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is moving to intervene in a case brought by special counsel John Durham against Michael Sussmann, a lawyer who represented the campaign when he brought information to the FBI alleging a link between Donald Trump and Russia in 2016.
At the time, Clinton was the Democratic presidential nominee and Trump was the Republican nominee; Trump went on to win the election.
Federal prosecutors are seeking to compel Clinton’s campaign, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and Fusion GPS, the firm they hired to conduct opposition research on Trump, to produce documents that the government may want to admit during the trial of Sussmann, who has been charged with lying to the FBI for allegedly claiming he wasn’t bringing the derogatory information about Trump on behalf of a client.
The campaign, the DNC, and Fusion have asserted privilege over the documents, which include communications between Perkins Coie, a law firm hired by the Democrats, and Fusion.
However, a claim of privilege, or an assertion that the documents should be withheld because they are attorney-client communications, falls short, Durham’s team alleges in a recent filing.
“The government does not dispute that [Fusion] conducted opposition research regarding Trump’s purported ties to Russia at the behest of the Clinton Campaign and the DNC through a retention agreement with [Perkins],” prosecutors said. “But in doing so, [Fusion] was not primarily providing or supporting expertise relating to legal advice; instead, it appears that the investigative firm’s primary, if not sole, function was to generate opposition research materials that the firm then shared widely with members of the media, the U.S. State Department, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (‘FBI’), members of Congress, and others.”
Former Democrat Lawyer Doesn’t Want Clinton Tweet Admitted in Durham Case
The lawyer charged with hiding his work for the Clinton campaign from the FBI filed a motion requesting that special counsel John Durham not be able to use a Hillary Clinton Twitter post that made reference to alleged Trump–Russia collusion claims.
Durham wrote last week that he wanted an October 2016 Twitter post from the Clinton campaign that promoted an allegation that there was a secret backchannel between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank. The campaign’s lawyer, Michael Sussmann, was charged last year with lying to the FBI by allegedly stating that he wasn’t working on behalf of any client when he pushed the Trump-Russian bank claim to then-FBI General Counsel James Baker.
On Oct. 31, 2016, Clinton wrote on Twitter: “Donald Trump has a secret server … It was set up to communicate privately with a Putin-tied Russian bank.” She later wrote that “computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.”
The claims about the alleged secret backchannel between the bank, reportedly identified as Alfa Bank, and former President Donald Trump’s business were ultimately refuted by the FBI.
Durham also sought to preserve a Twitter post from Clinton’s campaign that included a lengthy statement from former adviser Jake Sullivan, who now works as President Joe Biden’s national security adviser. “This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow,” Sullivan claimed. “This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s ties to Russia.”
26 Governors Create Border Strike Force ‘In the Absence of Federal Leadership’
Twenty-six U.S. governors, all Republican, announced the creation of a Border Strike Force to “disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations” on April 19.
The group of governors signed a memorandum of understanding, pledging to work together to “serve as a force multiplier to target cartels and criminal networks financially and operationally.”
“Together, governors will improve public safety, protect victims from horrific crimes, reduce the amount of drugs in our communities, and alleviate the humanitarian crisis at the Southern Border,” the agreement states.
The group includes two border states—Arizona and Texas—as well as 24 others: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
“In the absence of federal leadership, states are partnering together to create the American Governors’ Border Strike Force to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations by increasing collaboration, improving intelligence, investing in analysis, combating human smuggling, and stopping drug flow in our states,” the agreement states.
Trilateral Commission Members Serving In Biden Administration
The Trilateral Commission started in 1973 to create a New International Economic Order and was the fountainhead of modern globalization. Their members have dominated every Administration since, and the Biden Administration is no exception. The two most elite posts are the Secretary of State (Blinken) and the National Security Advisor (Sullivan). To say that the Commission is mothballs in 2022 is foolishness.
I am asked frequently on radio/tv interviews to explain who are the movers and shakers in the world. Here is a list of US globalists who are at the top of the pyramid. Study these names and consider their connections and influence.
The list below contains only current US members of the Trilateral Commission. Members from Mexico and Canada are removed only to allow focus on the United States. To download a complete list of members, including Asia and Europe, click the link at the bottom.
FORMER MEMBERS IN PUBLIC SERVICE
Tony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State
Lael Brainard, Member, U.S. Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors
Mark Brzezinski, U.S. Ambassador to Poland (brother of broadcaster Mika Brzezinski and son of TC co0founder,. Zbigniew Brzezinski)
- Nicholas Burns, U.S. Ambassador to China
Ken Juster, U.S. Ambassador to India
David Lipton, First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
Wendy Sherman, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Tennessee Republican Party Removes Three Candidates From Ballot for US House Seat
The Tennessee GOP has voted to remove three candidates who were vying for a seat representing the state’s 5th Congressional District.
Republicans voted to boot Morgan Ortagus, Robby Starbuck, and Baxter Lee from the primary ballot, Tennessee Republican Chairman Scott Golden told news outlets.
Golden and the party did not respond to requests for more information.
Ortagus, a State Department spokeswoman during the Trump administration who recently moved from Washington, was just endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
Starbuck, a filmmaker who used to live in California, has promoted Trump policies such as strong border enforcement.
Lee is a businessman who has described himself as a conservative outsider.
The vote came after state lawmakers passed legislation that requires congressional candidates to have resided in Tennessee for at least three years to appear on primary ballots.
Government Charges Man Who Allegedly Boasted About Jan. 6 to His Uber Driver
A man who prosecutors say bragged about the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol to his Uber driver was arrested and charged this month with three counts related to the breach.
Jerry Braun was charged on April 7 with obstruction during civil disorder, violent entry or disorderly conduct, and entering and remaining in a building.
Braun, arrested on April 12, faces up to six years and six months in prison if convicted.
According to charging documents unsealed on April 19, an Uber driver reported picking up a passenger named Jerry about 1 mile away from the Capitol at approximately 7:05 p.m. on the day of the breach. The man was bleeding near his right eye, which appeared injured.
A video recording of the ride obtained by the FBI showed the driver asking Braun about violence at the Capitol.
“Well, it started around, right when I got there. I tore down the barricades,” the passenger said, according to the FBI.
“You did? Why?” the driver wondered.
“Well, because, so we could get to the Capitol,” the passenger said.
“Well, how’d that work out for you?” the driver asked.
“Well, it looks like, uh, Biden’s gonna be our president,” Braun said.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Fed Paying Banks Not to Lend Has Cost $1.5 Billion in 4 Weeks
The Federal Reserve’s paying interest on bank reserves as well as selling to banks treasuries overnight, which in practice means paying banks so they lend less, is becoming more expensive with the Fed’s recently initiated series of interest rates hikes. Over the past four weeks, the central bank dished out nearly $1.5 billion to financial institutions that keep with the Fed their cash stockpiles and buy its bonds overnight. That number could multiply in the coming months.
With the gargantuan federal spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, banks have amassed an unprecedented hoard of cash reserves—money deposited by their customers. Normally, such reserves would be a dead weight on the banks’ balance sheets, not put to any productive use. Banks would thus try to lend against it and invest it, making it circulate in the economy.
In 2008, however, Congress authorized the Fed to start paying interest on the reserves, making it worthwhile for the banks to leave the cash idle. The interest was initially tiny, settling on 0.25 percent annually, but every time the Fed raises rates, this rate would go up too. By 2019, the Fed was paying the banks $1.5 billion every two weeks.
With the onset of the pandemic in 2020, the Fed dropped the rates to nearly zero, encouraging banks to invest and lend more. The interest on reserves dropped to about $110 million every two weeks. Yet, as the government kept piling up trillions in debt, the Fed kept printing more dollars and the reserves grew dramatically, from less than $1.7 trillion in early 2020 to over $4.2 trillion in September 2021. Even at the miniscule interest rate of 0.15 percent, the Fed was already paying almost $250 million every two weeks.
The reserves started to taper then, but largely because of another Fed trick called “Overnight Reverse Repurchase Agreement,” or “reverse repo.” It means the Fed sells the federal obligations it owns to banks one day only to buy them back at a slightly higher price the next day. The price difference only added up to a 0.05 percent annualized interest rate, but the banks still jumped on the opportunity as it allowed them to make an immediate profit with essentially no risk and very little work. By the end of September, the Fed was paying about $2 million a day in reverse repo interest.
GOP Lawmakers on House Intel Committee Probe Potential Chinese ‘Malign Influence’ Over Forbes Merger
Republican lawmakers on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence launched a probe on the potential Chinese ownership and influence on business media outlet Forbes, which is planning to go public via a merger with a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Then-U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) initiated the investigation in late 2021 after Forbes’s announcement of its listing plans in August.
In a letter dated Nov. 23, 2021, Nunes asked Forbes to “assist our investigation related to China’s malign influence activities against U.S. Corporations.”
“The PRC’s control over Chinese industry and investment creates a non-market influence on global commerce,” the letter, obtained by The Epoch Times, stated, referring to the regime’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.
“Enabling the acquisition, transfer, and theft of U.S. innovation, the PRC’s grip on business is leveraged as a powerful platform for malign influence.”
Forbes’s merger at issue is with Magnum Opus Acquisition Ltd. (NYSE: OPA), a Hong Kong-based SPAC, a blank-check company that has no operations but enables its acquisition target to go public. The deal is evaluated at $630 million, and Forbes will go public under the ticker symbol of FRBS.
Magnum Opus initially announced that the merger would be complete by the first quarter. But on March 22, the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to extend the deadline to May 31.
Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), who succeeded Nunes as the committee’s ranking GOP member, took over the investigation. Turner’s office didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for an update. The Washington Times first reported on the probe.
In Forbes’s response letter on Dec. 16, 2021, also seen by The Epoch Times, the company’s attorney denied any knowledge of investment from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or any China-based entities. He also denied any such entities’ influence on Forbes’s editorial and commercial operations or anyone at Forbes having met with the Chinese State Council Information Office, a central agency charged with foreign propaganda.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Internet Of Bodies Means Total Control Over Your Body, Behavior, Actions
Implantable microchips are marketed as the ultimate in convenience, but the goal is to create the Internet of Bodies (IoB), described by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as an ecosystem of “an unprecedented number of sensors,” including emotional sensors, “attached to, implanted within, or ingested into human bodies to monitor, analyze and even modify human bodies and behavior”
Sweden is one of the earliest adopters of implantable microchips. The chip is implanted just beneath the skin on the hand, and operates using either near-field communication (NFC) — the same technology used in smartphones — or radio-frequency identification (RFID), which is used in contactless credit cards
Implanted payment chips are an extension of the internet of things; they’re a way of connecting and exchanging data, and the benefits must be weighed against the potential risks
Countries around the world are now working on a system for a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a fiat currency in digital form that is programmable so that you can only spend your money on certain things or in specific places, as desired by the issuer
In the end, everything will be connected to a single implantable device that will hold your digital identity, health data and programmable CBDCs. Your digital identity, in turn, will include everything that can be known about you through surveillance via implanted biosensors, your computer, smartphone, GPS, social media, online searches, purchases and spending habits. Algorithms will then decide what you can and cannot do based on who you are
HEALTH
Florida Surgeon General Warns Against Child Transgender Procedures
Florida’s surgeon general on Wednesday recommended against youth transgender procedures and surgeries while criticizing the Biden administration’s backing of those treatments for children.
“The federal government’s medical establishment releasing guidance failing at the most basic level of academic rigor shows that this was never about health care,” Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, said in a statement. “It was about injecting political ideology into the health of our children.”
According to his office, for children and adolescents who use so-called puberty-blocking drugs, hormone treatments, or surgical procedures, about 80 percent “will lose their desire to identify with the non-birth sex” while he also noted that during puberty, the pre-frontal cortex of the brain continues to develop until approximately 25 years of age.
There are also “potentially irreversible consequences such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, infertility, increased cancer risk, and thrombosis,” Ladapo wrote.
Do You Know the Wide-Ranging Health Benefits of Selenium?
Selenium is a powerful antioxidant that helps reduce the signs of aging you see and feel in your body, which is the result of molecular and immune system changes, increased susceptibility to environmental stressors, metabolic imbalances and disease
Supplementing with selenium when levels are within normal limits does not prevent heart disease. However, data show people with low serum levels are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, indicating optimal levels are necessary but more is not better
An animal model shows selenium may help protect against obesity, which is a significant trigger for many chronic diseases. Low selenium levels may also be linked to age-related cognitive decline and are associated with worse COVID outcomes
Signs of deficiency include hair loss, fatigue, frequent sickness, cognitive decline and muscle weakness. Brazil nuts are the best food source for selenium as just six to eight nuts provide 989% of your daily allowance
—> Power Mall Product of Interest: Vegan-Friendly Selenium Made From Organic Mustard Seed
COVID RELATED NEWS
The Justice Department has filed an appeal that seeks to reverse a judge’s recent ruling that ended the nation’s mask mandate on public transit. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had asked the department to appeal the decision, issuing a statement Wednesday that said the mandate “remains necessary for the public health.”
“CDC continues to recommend that people wear masks in all indoor public transportation settings,” the CDC’s statement continued. “CDC’s number one priority is protecting the public health of our nation. As we have said before, wearing masks is most beneficial in crowded or poorly ventilated locations, such as the transportation corridor.”
CDC Launches New Disease Outbreak Forecasting Center
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially launched the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA) this month, which aims to enable timely and effective decision-making when responding to disease outbreaks.
“CFA will produce models and forecasts to characterize the state of an outbreak and its course, inform public health decision makers on potential consequences of deploying control measures, and support innovation to continuously improve the science of outbreak analytics and modeling,” according to the CDC website.
The CFA has been set up to accomplish three core functions. The first is to generate analyses and forecasts to boost outbreak preparedness and response. CFA will establish a data and analytics architecture and collaborate with local, state, and federal leaders in the decision-making process.
The second is to share timely information with authorities and the public. CFA will maintain a network to engage decision-makers from civil society, the private sector, and the public sector.
The third is to advance research and development priorities to boost the performance of outbreak analyses and forecasts. The center will establish a network of testbeds in local and state jurisdictions to “design, build, and test novel analytics and data sources.”
During its pre-launch phase in winter 2021, the center’s team partnered with various institutions to produce the first American estimates of Omicron severity as compared to the Delta variant.
When CFA recognized that there would be an imminent surge in the Omicron variant in the country, it quickly alerted officials which enabled leaders to plan for the event in advance. The agency also contributed analyses on travel policies, vaccine policies, and so on.
“The Forecasting Center is an important step to ensure that the United States is better prepared to respond to outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics. We will build a new capability that will equip public health and elected leaders to make better, faster decisions during public health emergencies,” Dylan George, the Director of Operations, said in a LinkedIn post.
Mental Health Crisis Driven by Public Health Policy Trauma
The United States is facing a mental health crisis, experts say, noting we’re in dire need of more mental health professionals
Nearly 1 in 3 — 27.3% — of American adults now struggle with depression and/or anxiety
This is the price society is paying for ill-conceived, irrational pandemic measures and nonstop fearmongering
To treat everyone, each of the 33,000 practicing psychiatrists in the U.S. would have to see approximately 3,000 patients a year — a patient load that simply isn’t feasible
Those of us who have not succumbed to irrational fear (or worked our way out of it) can act as a lifeline to others by sharing information that empowers rather than enforces fear, and by being role models in the way we live our lives
CANCEL CULTURE
Six Media Giants Control 90% Of What You Read, Watch, Hear
Directors of these 6 media giants also sit on over 500 other giant corporations and 30 percent of those interlocks are within the same 6 companies. This is nepotism of the most dysfunctional nature that creates a predictable echo chamber that brainwashes entire populations. This is a must-read report.
⁃ TN Editor
In a recent survey I conducted, 60% of journalists said they’d worked for a publication that got bought by a larger company while they were there — and 40% of that group admitted to witnessing negative changes in their job expectations or work environment after the acquisition.
If you examine the history of countless media mergers and acquisitions over the last several decades, you’ll come to an unsettling discovery: local, independent outlets are dying out in droves. The result? The vast majority of the news you digest is tailored to serve the interests of corporations and their leaders, rather than citizens.
As for the consequences of all this deregulation — whereas 50 companies dominated the media landscape in 1983, that dwindled to nine companies by the 1990s. It got worse from there.
Today, just six conglomerates — Comcast, Disney, AT&T, Sony, Fox, and Paramount Global (formerly known as ViacomCBS) — control 90% of what you watch, read, or listen to. To put this into perspective: that means about 232 media executives have the power to decide what information 277 million Americans are able to access. In 2021, the “big six” banked a total of more than $478 billion in revenue. That’s more than both Finland’s and Ukraine’s GDP combined.
The issue extends to print media and radio giants, too: iHeartMedia owns 863 radio stations nationwide, while Gannett owns over 100 daily U.S. newspapers and nearly 1,000 weeklies.
As the pool controlling the media keeps shrinking, so does the breadth of the information reported. Hence why today’s thousands of news outlets often churn out embarrassingly duplicative content.
EDUCATION
Mom Learns She Can Homeschool Her Autistic Daughter With Patience, Love, and Consistency
After learning that she didn’t need any formal qualifications to homeschool her daughter with autism, this Florida mom created a child-led learning space at home and saw her daughter thrive. Now, she’s reassuring other parents that they can do it too.
“Society has told us you are not qualified to teach your child, only educators are,” mom-of-two Fiorella Acosta Perkins of Tampa told The Epoch Times. “That’s just simply not the case; homeschooling has been around a lot longer than public school has.”
Fiorella has two daughters: 2-year-old Silvia and 4-year-old Emilia, who’s on the autistic spectrum. The 30-year-old mom left her career as a microbiologist to become a full-time stay-at-home mom.
Fiorella first became concerned about Emi’s development when she noticed her then-toddler wasn’t talking. A doctor advised her to wait, but when Emi still wasn’t talking at 18 months, didn’t make eye contact, and wasn’t playing like Fiorella’s nieces of a similar age, she sought help again.
“It was actually at [Emi’s] speech therapy evaluation that they pointed out she could be on the spectrum,” she said.
Unfamiliar with autism, Fiorella panicked. She experienced a “mourning period” of her expectations as a parent, but when Emi was formally diagnosed in 2019, she sidelined her fear in favor of action.
“We started speech and occupational therapy right away,” she said. “Then of course, in 2020, the pandemic hit, and all of her therapies were changing … it was then I came to the realization that I can’t depend on anybody for my child’s progress. As a mom, I was like, ‘Okay, I need to learn how to do this on my own.’”
The more Fiorella read about homeschooling, the more she learned how qualified she already was and she started to believe that there were many different ways to educate a child at home and hone their strengths rather than weaknesses.
Emi’s learning is led by her specific needs.
“She just naturally is really interested in letters and numbers, so we do a lot of that,” said Fiorella. “I definitely emphasize reading; I want her to like reading books, because if I can teach her to read, then she has the ability to learn anything she wants.”
Apart from her academic goals, Fiorella also helps her daughter with “life skills” such as self-care, brushing her teeth, going to the bathroom, getting dressed, and socializing. She uses at-home enrichment activities from the international nonprofit HIPPY, which provides families who have kids with developmental delays or who are at risk for developmental delays with programs across the United States and internationally.
Through Emi’s therapists, she has also learned that there are three pillars of homeschooling a special needs child.
“Patience is key, consistency is vital, and love is innate … when you come from a place of love, nothing can go wrong,” she said.
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