INFOGRAPHIC🔎President Biden’s ambitious #Infrastructure plan includes a varied package of initiatives, from traditional projects like roads and bridges to #Climate initiatives and programs outside the traditional infrastructure scope. (Thread👇) theepochtimes.com/biden-admins-2…
Below is a summary of proposed expenditures under the $2 trillion-plus #AmericanJobsPlan that Democrats will try to pass through a nearly evenly split Congress in the coming months, which Biden says is the 1st in his 2-part economic plan.
Biden's plan includes $621 billion for transportation infrastructure and resilience projects, including $115 billion to modernize bridges, highways and roads.
This also includes funding to improve #AirQuality, limit greenhouse gas #Emissions, and reduce congestion.
$100 billion is meant to build high-speed #Broadband infrastructure to reach 100% coverage.
$213 billion is allocated to produce, preserve, and retrofit more than 2 million affordable and sustainable #Housing developments.
This includes the creation of a $27 billion Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator to spur private investment into the #Energy sector.
The plan includes $12 billion for community college infrastructure. States will be responsible for using the dollars to address both existing physical and technological infrastructure needs.
$18 billion has been set aside for the modernization of #VeteransAffairs hospitals and clinics.
A larger chunk of the plan includes $400 billion for expanding access to affordable home- or community-based care for the aging population and people with disabilities.
$100 billion is set aside for programs targeted at underserved groups and getting students on paths to careers, including $5 billion in support of community violence prevention programs and $48 billion in workforce development infrastructure and worker protection.
$111 billion would be used to replace 100% of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines to ensure clean, safe drinking water.
A hefty $300 billion would be used to strengthen manufacturing #SupplyChains, including $50 billion for a new office at @CommerceGov to monitor domestic industrial capacity, $46 billion to jumpstart #CleanEnergy manufacturing, and $52 billion for domestic manufacturers.
$180 billion would go towards investments in R&D and future technologies, including $35 billion to address the #ClimateCrisis, $15 billion in trial projects for #Climate research priorities, and $15 billion to create 200 “centers of excellence” at historically black colleges.
$10 billion would be used in the modernization, sustainability, and resilience of federal buildings.
$25 billion has been set aside to help upgrade child care facilities and increase the supply of child care in areas that need it most.
Another $100 billion would be used to upgrade and build new public schools, through $50 billion in direct grants and an additional $50 billion leveraged through bonds.
$111 billion would be used to form a more resilient grid that goes toward “achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035.”
This includes a $10 billion investment in mobilizing conservation and resilience workers and the creation of a new Civilian Climate Corps.
Some programs and investments outlined in the plan didn’t include a price tag:
- LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYMENT
- WAGE PROVISIONS
- UNIONS
- CLEAN ENERGY
- WORKPLACE TOOLS
- JOB ACCESS
- COMMUNITY INVESTMENT
- TECH ADVANCEMENT
- JOB TRAINING
- HOUSING
Economists say the plan amounts to a massive federal power grab—potentially the largest in decades—while criticizing the Biden administration’s broad definition of #Infrastructure.
🚨 CCP Targets Shen Yun, NYT Coverage Raises Questions
“Two years ago, we learned the CCP planned to escalate its war on us in America. Now, we’re facing legal weaponization, media smears, and threats to bomb, shoot, and rape our performers.”
— Shen Yun VP Ying Chen
🧵A Thread
Sabotage Campaign. Shen Yun Performing Arts is facing mounting challenges. Recent incidents include bomb threats, sabotage such as tire-slashing, and a wave of disinformation aimed at disrupting its global performances. Evidence points to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the driving force behind these efforts. Meanwhile, the New York Times’ reporting on the group has drawn scrutiny for its alignment with Beijing’s narrative—here’s what’s happening to the U.S.-based arts group.
Global Tours. Shen Yun tours the world to top theaters to showcase China’s true cultural heritage through classical Chinese dance and music—traditions the CCP has tried to erase for decades. Its popularity has made it a target for attack on U.S. soil and around the world.
THREAD 🧵
Corruption is an “endemic feature” of China under communist rule due to the opaque political system in the party-state and the lack of checks and balances, according to a recent U.S. intelligence report.
The report, released on March 20 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), states that bribery increases “an official’s legal earnings by four to six times.”
It also reported that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping and his family had amassed more than $1 billion in wealth as of 2012.
Since Xi assumed power in 2012, information on corruption among CCP officials has been more challenging to obtain, the report said, adding that Xi’s family is known to have held at least millions in financial investments as of last year.
The Intelligence Authorization Act of 2023 required the ODNI to produce an unclassified report for the general public on the wealth and corruption of senior CCP leaders. Marco Rubio, currently U.S. secretary of state, inserted that requirement into the bill when he was vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
THREAD 🧵
British chat forums are shutting themselves down rather than face regulatory burdens recently applied to internet policing laws.
On March 17, the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act, a law that regulates internet spaces, officially kicked into force.
The law means that online platforms must immediately start putting in place measures to protect people in the UK from criminal activity with far-reaching implications for the internet.
However, for some forums—from cyclists, hobbyists, and hamster owners, to divorced father support and more—the regulatory pressure is proving too much, and its myriad of rules are causing chat forums that have been operating for decades, in some cases, to call it a day.
Conservative Peer Lord Daniel Moylan told The Epoch Times by email that “common sense suggests the sites least likely to survive will be hobby sites, community sites, and the like.”
‘Small But Risky Services’
The Act—which was celebrated as the world-first online safety law—was designed to ensure that tech companies take more responsibility for the safety of their users.
For example, social media platforms, including user-to-user service providers, have the duty to proactively police harmful illegal content such as revenge and extreme pornography, sex trafficking, harassment, coercive or controlling behavior, and cyberstalking.
But what the government calls “small but risky services” which are often forums, have to submit illegal harms risk assessments to the Online Safety Act’s regulator, Ofcom, by March 31.
Ofcom first published its illegal harm codes of practice and guidance in December 2024 and had given providers three months to carry out the assignment.
It was given powers under the law and warned that those who fail to do so may face enforcement action.
“We have strong enforcement powers at our disposal, including being able to issue fines of up to 10 percent of turnover or £18 million ($23 million)—whichever is greater—or to apply to a court to block a site in the UK in the most serious cases,” said Ofcom.
Some of the rules for owners of these sites—which are often operated by individuals —include keeping written records of their risk assessments, detailing levels of risk, and assessing the “nature and severity of potential harm to individuals.”
While terrorism and child sexual exploitation may be more straightforward to assess and mitigate, offenses such as coercive and controlling behavior and hate offenses are more challenging to manage with forums that have thousands of users.
Gamers total 71 percent of the U.S. population and, on average, spend at least one month per year gaming. How does this affect emotions, cognition, and senses?
Research from over 90 medical reports highlights the impact on 15+ parts of the brain, as shown in this infographic:
From the Atari 2600 to the PS5, from Zelda to Fortnight, from mobile app games to gaming PCs, billions of players worldwide engage in gaming.
First, here's a quick breakdown of game design.
Game design incorporates three major strategies to keep players hooked:
1. Game Juice
The color, touch, and sound effects that are designed to sync with the brain’s inherent set of rules give players a rewarding sense of control over in-game changes, tricking the brain into perceiving the game world as both real and charming.