Police Beat Workers at Apple iPhone Assembly Factory in China; Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade | NTD

Welcome to NTD, an event many have been looking forward to all year has finally arrived. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We'll take a look behind the scenes at what it takes to make it all happen. A chef from Texas shares his secrets to deep frying turkey. Learn what he does to achieve maximum flavor. Walmart reports strong growth in its third quarter. We find out what they're doing this year to boost sales before the holidays. Protests at the world's largest iPhone assembly factory. Police beat workers in China for protesting working conditions and pay. Good morning. Welcome to NTD. I'm Kevin Hogan. Happy Thanksgiving. My colleague Evelyn Lee has taken the day off today. Let's jump right into it. Millions of spectators are expected to line the streets of New York today. This as high-flying balloons such as Bluey, the Australian cattle pup, and Stuart, the one-eyed minion, help usher in the holiday season during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. NTD's Daniel Monaghan has the story. We're here to see the Macy's 2022 Thanksgiving Parade and we're so excited. Around 100 volunteers gathered yesterday to inflate the balloons, pumping them full of helium with giant hoses. I think it was amazing how we got to have the chance to do it. Inflation is done carefully and piece by piece with every balloon to prevent damage. It feels so great to be here. It's so pretty for all of the themes of things to flow around and make them happy. It takes volunteers about eight hours to get the balloons up and ready for the parade. We have a team of about 100 inflation volunteers. There are a dedicated, trained inflation team. They come to a few trainings per year so that they know how to inflate our balloons. It's very specialized. Four new giant character balloons in the parade include Dino and Baby Dino from Sinclair. We also have a very other cool unit to celebrate the U.S. men's soccer team being in the FIFA World Cup. So we have Striker, the U.S. soccer star. Altogether, 16 giant inflatables, 28 floats, 12 marching bands, 700 clowns and Santa Claus plus many musical stars will entertain the spectators. The parade is expected to last about three hours ending at noon. Daniel Monaghan, NTD News. The parade is from 9 o'clock Eastern until noon. We will live stream it on NTD.com. Deep frying a turkey might not be the healthiest way of preparing the traditional Thanksgiving meal, but a Texas chef says it could be the tastiest. He walks us through his technique for preparing the iconic bird. NTD's Jeremy Sandberg has the story. When you fry something, it's going to taste better. Andres Albaron is the head chef at Houston Catering Concepts in Texas. He says for his tastes, the crispier the better. His recipe for flavor is simple. I have my roux right here. I have some butter, cayenne seasoning, brown sugar, a little bit of the salt and pepper. That's it. That's what I have. He injects the concoction into the bird before cooking. When you cut the turkey, you're going to taste the flavors. So this is the process for it. It's very popular. For me, I love fried turkey. I prefer fried turkey instead of roasted turkey. By many accounts, the trend of deep frying turkeys emerged from the Cajun cuisine of Louisiana in the 1970s. The cooking method can be dangerous due to the combustible nature of the oil and the use of an open flame, which could start a fire. The right temperature is 165, but I'm going to do a 170 to make sure it's fully cooked. So I'm going to put this one in the turkey. So you put this one in the bread, all the way, one hour and one hour and 20 minutes. It all depends how high you have the fire, but normally it's like a one hour. Alvaron plays it safe by gradually increasing the temperature after submerging the turkey in a pot of peanut oil. He says properly drying off the turkey and ensuring it's fully defrosted beforehand are key to avoiding splattering and potential fires. Once removing the turkey from the oil, the chef waits 10 minutes for it to cool off before slicing it. For me, to fry is more flavor. That's what I'm fried. Houston Catering Concepts Chief Operating Officer Rianna Sherman says she's had to raise the price of a roasted turkey to $150 this year compared to $120 last year due to rising prices and declining inventory. Prices have skyrocketed. We are having a difficult time finding product. It is a lot of the inflation that's going on in the world, but anything from lettuce to potatoes to turkeys. The company says it's sold about 20 fried turkeys since November 1st, compared to about quadruple that number of oven-roasted turkeys this holiday season. Jeremy Sandberg, NTD News. Long lines formed in downtown L.A. yesterday morning as the annual Thanksgiving lunch was dished out to the city's homeless. The annual meal was held by Los Angeles Mission, and it has been a staple in the area for over two decades, and it's a hit with the locals. NTD's Kost M&S has the story. Many people gathered for a free Thanksgiving meal in Los Angeles's impoverished Skid Row on Wednesday. The annual event is predominantly intended to feed the homeless. But the organizers of the event, Los Angeles Mission, say everyone is welcome. Yeah, so we put this on every year. It's our annual Thanksgiving. We provide over 1,000 meals today to our friends and our neighbors in the community to really help them to see that they can be loved and served. Consisting of roast turkey, mashed potatoes, and collard greens, the traditional Thanksgiving lunch has been very popular in the community. Oh yeah, you know, I've been here before, years ago, you know, and pretty good food, so, you know, I just remember how good it was, so I, you know, tried to get another plate. I don't know how to cook, so, you know, I don't know how to cook Thanksgiving dinner, so. According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, nearly 70,000 homeless people live in the city. In addition to Thanksgiving dinner, Los Angeles Mission also provides other basic services, including employment help, health care, mental health care, and even haircuts and beauty Walmart released its third quarter earnings this week and reported strong sales growth. The company attributes that to its cheaper groceries. It also says they are seeing an increase in wealthier shoppers. The world's largest retailer strategy this year is to offer savings throughout the season. That way, consumers will be able to get a head start on their holiday shopping. They rolled out some early deals before Black Friday. Shoppers at a Walmart Supercenter in New Jersey shared what they've been buying during the holiday sales event. Just food, a lot of food, a lot of good sales. They got some expensive toys, and I just got things for the house, that's it. Walmart spokesman Molly Blakeman says customers count on the store for many things and are excited to be able to get everything in one spot. We know that this holiday season, groceries have been a little bit more expensive, and we're so excited to be able to offer the same prices on a Thanksgiving meal that we did last year, $88, which is a really incredible deal and something we're really proud of. Blakeman says over 75 percent of customers surveyed expressed a desire for deals spread out over the season. That way, they can get a head start on shopping and finish as they get closer to the holidays. So we're ready for that. We've been having deals every Monday, all month long. We know customers have been taking us up on those offers online. They're going to be here on Friday shopping in stores, and then again on Cyber Monday. One of the hottest selling items this year has been televisions. We know that's been a big hit on the cyber sales, and we're going to see that continue as we go through the rest of the holiday season. Consumer Research Platform Attest says 80 percent of the consumers they asked planned to spend something this Black Friday, but the average spending will be significantly lower this year. Last year, Attest found Americans were spending $300 to $500 on average on Black Friday. This year, 18 percent of those surveyed said they will likely spend a much lower amount — $100 to $200. Seventeen percent say they would spend between $200 and $300. Attest researchers say over half of Americans will pull back on spending this Black Friday compared to last year. That's in response to inflation. Many say they need to spend money on home energy bills and gas for their vehicles, cover day-to-day expenses or save it for emergencies. The National Retail Federation projects holiday sales during November and December to grow between 6 and 8 percent over 2021 — between $940 and $960 billion. Last year's holiday sales grew more than 13 percent over 2020 and totaled almost $890 billion, shattering previous records. Holiday retail sales have averaged an increase of around 5 percent over the past decade, with pandemic spending in recent years accounting for considerable gains. Lockdowns in China even include keeping workers living at factories. Many have fled the poor conditions, which include shortages of food and medical service. We have more about the restrictive measures being imposed by the communist regime. And the musical artist Ice Cube is facing a steep bill after opting not to get the COVID vaccine. We'll have all that and more for you in just a minute. The Shen Yun Orchestra combines the classical music of East and West in perfect harmony. NTD Television's Thanksgiving special. Watch a performance of the world-famous Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra on November 24th and 25th. We invite you to embark on a 5,000-year musical journey. Stay tuned to NTD Television. Welcome back. China is expanding lockdowns as it sees a surge in COVID cases. The communist regime uses extreme policies to stop the spread. They call one of their tactics closed-loop management. That's when employees live in the workplace with no outside contact. Police were seen beating workers protesting this week from a factory that assembles Apple iPhones. NTD's Jeremy Sandberg has more on the situation in China. Workers from Foxconn, Apple's iPhone assembly factory in Zhengzhou, China, protested this week. The factory is Apple's largest iPhone assembly factory in the world. It produces roughly half of Apple's global iPhone supply. Videos show thousands of people facing rows of police in hazmat suits with riot shields. Police were filmed beating protesters with clubs and kicks outside the factory. One person was struck repeatedly after he tried to grab away a metal pole that he was hit with. Foxconn recently offered higher pay to attract more workers. Employees say they were promised a recruitment bonus. Many traveled from afar to take jobs at the factory. They say when they arrived, the company changed the terms, telling them they needed to work two additional months at lower pay to receive the bonus. Foxconn says it has always fulfilled its contractual obligation about payments. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Chinese Communist regime is trying to contain the latest wave of COVID outbreaks without shutting down factories and the rest of its economy like it did when the pandemic started. As part of its Zero COVID strategy, workers at some factories are made to live in dormitories and makeshift quarantine facilities on site. They aim to isolate every case and eliminate the virus entirely. In other countries around the world, governments are ending antivirus controls and relying on vaccinations and immunity from past infections to prevent deaths and illnesses. Thousands of workers from the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou walked out earlier this month. Employees felt living conditions there were unsafe, so they left. They say some living in the dormitories had the virus. Police set up along main roads to block workers from leaving, violently pushing them and ordering them back to the factory. The dispute is causing major delays for Apple's new iPhone 14 models. The company has warned deliveries would be late. People in eight districts of Zhengzhou were told to stay home for five days beginning Thursday, except to buy food or get medical treatment. Daily mass testing was ordered in what the city calls a war of annihilation against the virus. Zhengzhou has around 6.5 million residents. Other major cities across China are also increasing lockdown restrictions and seeing a flare-up of protests. In the capital Beijing, neighborhoods are being closed off. Residents say the restrictions go beyond what should be allowed. The CCP says more than 250,000 COVID cases have been found in the past three weeks, and the daily average is increasing. Authorities reported China's first COVID-19 deaths in six months this week, but China's figures are considered unreliable. Many cases have gone unreported since the pandemic started. Jeremy Sandberg, NTD News. The rapper, actor and film producer Ice Cube says his refusal to get the COVID vaccine recently cost him a pretty penny, actually $9 million. He spoke about what happened on a podcast this week. NTD's Daniel Monahan has the story. The Los Angeles native, professionally known as Ice Cube, formed the pioneering gangster rap group N.W.A. with Eazy-E and Dr. Dre in 1987. As its lead rapper, he wrote some of Dre's and most of Eazy's lyrics on the landmark album Straight Outta Compton. Fellow rapper Snoop Dogg ranked Ice Cube as the greatest emcee of all time. Reports surfaced in October that Ice Cube had departed Sony's upcoming comedy Oh Hell No, in which he would have co-starred with Jack Black. This after declining a request from producers to get vaccinated. The Sony film was to begin shooting this winter in Hawaii. Since 1991, Ice Cube has acted in nearly 40 films, several of which are highly regarded. I don't know how Hollywood feel about me right now, you know what I'm saying? Meanwhile, an article published in the Washington Post yesterday reported that a majority of Americans dying from the coronavirus were vaccinated. It states that 58% of coronavirus deaths in August were people who were vaccinated or boosted. I ain't gonna take no s**t I don't need. That is a continuation of a trend that has emerged over the past year. The Washington Post reports that the share of deaths of people who are vaccinated has been steadily rising. In September 2021, vaccinated people made up just 23% of coronavirus fatalities. In January and February this year, it was up to 42%. Many cases of lost employment due to vaccine refusal have either been decided or are moving through the courts. In September, a Manhattan Supreme Court judge overturned the vaccine mandate for the New York Police Benevolent Association. It ruled that members who lost their jobs for being unvaccinated should be reinstated. Daniel Monaghan, NTD News. And over to Germany now, where festivities have officially started. The annual Dresden Christmas Market, known as Striezelmarkt, is underway and is celebrating its 588th anniversary. NTD's Kost M&S gives us a glimpse into the old tradition. The world-renowned Striezelmarkt is back in force after a two-year break due to the pandemic. The Dresden Christmas Market has been held annually since 1434. It is named after an old word for Stollen, a traditional Christmas pastry. The market attracts millions of visitors from all over. We like it very much, even though it is small, cozy, very nice. In Braunschweig, where we come from, it is built slightly larger and it's also quite nice. But here it's cute, beautifully lit, and it's good to see that it is happening again after two years. Dresden Mayor Dirk Hilbert cut into the six-foot long Stollen and declared the market officially open. Annual tradition holds that slices of the traditional Saxon cake are sold, with all proceeds going to charity. At the event, visitors keep warm with a glass or two of traditional German mulled wine. Let's have a proper beginning for this evening and a good ending. And I hope I find my hotel again. The Striezelmarkt will remain open to visitors until December 24th. Kost M&S, NTD News. The Sax Fifth Avenue Holiday Window Decorations kick off the 2022 New York holiday season. The Sax Fifth Avenue Holiday Window Decorations are a New York staple. Its flagship store is located between 49th and 50th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The Sax Holiday Show will be on view until January 3rd. For the first time in history, Fifth Avenue will shut down all vehicular traffic on December 4th, 11th, and 18th from 12 noon to 6 pm for a new initiative called Fifth Avenue for All. Car traffic will be closed off from 49th Street to 57th Street. A variety of food vendors and musicians from both local choirs and instrumental ensembles will also be setting up shop. And coming up, a changing of lifestyle and a choice of healthy eating has changed a couple's future. We have some tips for you just after this break. A performance that truly matters for each and every one of us. This is what you've been waiting for. See it at least once in your lifetime. Get tickets now at ShenYun.com. This is Stephen K. Bannon. I urge you to protect your savings from inflation by diversifying into a physical gold IRA from the Birch Gold Group. Simply text the word NTD to 989898 and you'll get a free info kit on gold IRAs explaining everything. Welcome back. An Illinois woman lost her menstrual period after years of disordered eating and over-exercise. Hoping to get pregnant and start a family in a natural, healthy way, she and her husband embarked on a radical diet overhaul. Our host Evelyn Lee earlier spoke with the couple. Let's take a look. It was a really hard mental battle to get through. I mean, I just remember crying a lot as I would have to go back to the store to get new clothes. You know, kind of I sized out of that size and kept growing. But I knew it was the right thing because ultimately our goal was to be able to have a child and to get pregnant. And I had been without cycles for many, many years during this process. And so, yeah, it was just kind of this intuitive, like, if I put the right foods in my body and I listen to my body, my body will know how to respond and it will respond accordingly. Wow. And Jim, I want to ask you about that, too, because Joelle initiated that huge change in your lifestyle and your guys' lifestyle. How was it for you to adapt? I wasn't necessarily sold on it myself to begin with. But even after kind of years of us changing our diet and lifestyle, I started to see some really incredible health changes in my life, too. And some skin issues and stomach things that I dealt with my whole life up to that point kind of went away. And just I saw a lot of really positive health improvements as well. But ultimately, kind of as we shifted our lifestyle around, we really we kind of knew in our hearts that we wanted more of this home based lifestyle that wasn't separate from our home life and that we were kind of all doing it together as a family. And so, yeah, so we were kind of in this process of building up a home business right now. And so it was it was a huge shift to just kind of quit and leave my current job. But was it worth it? It's totally worth it. It's so fulfilling now to kind of we're all working at it together. The kids are involved. I'm at home, you know, three meals a day with them. And, you know, and we kind of balance work and life here at home. And it's it's yeah, it's just awesome. So what's the biggest lesson you guys learned from this whole experience? It's a good question. Yeah, I think our path to this point has felt fairly unconventional. I think a lot of our life was kind of had one kind of path set out for it. And it seems like that as we've made choices to kind of stray from that path, like we've only found more fulfillment and more just joy and satisfaction in our lives as as we've kind of created our own narrative for our life and really set our own values. And, yeah, you know, gone after our passion. And so, yeah, I would say it hasn't it's not been the easy path. Like, I feel like kind of taking the pill or going to the grocery store and getting food is is so much easier than the kind of the things that we've been doing. But at the end of the day, like Jim said, it's been so much more fulfilling and life giving and even just seeing the benefits in our own health and our children and their health and what their values are. It's been just really, really amazing. We live in the country. We brought a little homestead property and we have, you know, some cows that I milk every day. Like it's just a totally different shift in lifestyle that would have never happened had we not just started down this path of kind of asking questions, digging deeper and really looking for what was going to be the best thing for ourselves. And now really just giving that gift of health and life and just kind of this whole different lifestyle to our kids, I think, has just really been the sweetest gift. What are your top rules in the kitchen, especially when it comes to cooking and for ingredients? Yeah, yeah. You want to answer this one? Sure. Yeah. If you can't pronounce it, you probably shouldn't eat it. But yeah, we just try and trace our food back to its sources as much as possible and kind of the whole form of the food. So we try not to buy any packaged processed foods anymore. And since we do kind of have this homestead that we live on, we try and grow and raise as much food as we can or source it locally. But but that's been that's been a process for us. I mean, we started off really kind of just changing, swapping out our processed food for whole unprocessed foods from the store. Then we started sourcing as much as we could from local farms. And then we started really kind of figuring out, OK, we can we can grow a lot of this food ourselves. It's hard work, it's dedication, but we can grow it and raise it and preserve it and prepare it in the kitchen ourselves. And so I think I think that's been it's been a it's been a process. We didn't just start out like milking a cow instantly, but we kind of worked our way there over time. Right, right. But for when you do go to the store, how do you know or maybe you have tips for all of us? How do you know if something is actually healthy versus it just says so on the label? Yeah, this is a good question. I feel like we have made eating like so hard lately because it's like there are so many messages and so many things out there and so many different things on labels that it's hard to know what to believe, what not to believe, what's real and what's not. But my kind of rule of thumb is I tend to look for things without ingredient labels, you know, whole fruits, vegetables, meats like those things shouldn't have extra ingredients. Or if they do have an ingredient label like dairy products, for instance, like if you read the ingredients on like yogurt or a sour cream or something like that, like the only ingredient should be, you know, your cultured cream or your yogurt without extra additives and preservatives and things like that. Well, very interesting. Thank you so much, Joelle and Jim Kurtadina for sharing your story with us today. I really appreciate it. And what a story it was. You know, I grew up on a farm, so it sounds that lifestyle sounds like a dream to me. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, awesome. All right. Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks for having us. That's all for today's program here at NTD. We want to wish all of you a very happy and warm Thanksgiving. We'd love to hear from you, too. You can share your thoughts and your story at GoodMorningNTD.com. So shoot us an email if you'd like. Thanks for watching. I'm Kevin Hogan. We'll see you next time.