Actress Olivia Munn on Wednesday said a man attacked her friend’s mom — an Asian woman — in New York City this week.
The victim, 52, was outside a store in Queens on Tuesday when the suspect shoved her with such force that she hit her head on the concrete and “passed out on the floor,” according to the victim’s family and reports.
“She left the hospital with 10 stitches in her head,” Munn, 40, wrote on Twitter, along with a picture of the suspect. “We’re gonna find this guy. Queens, Internet, please… do your sh–.”
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Police said the suspect was wanted in connection with the incident, which followed a verbal dispute.
The victim’s daughter, Maggie Kayla Cheng, in a post on social media, said her mother was hospitalized.
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“Hate crime has no place in our community. How you go up against a 5’3 110-115 lbs lady?” she wrote.
Olivia Munn attends The Creative Coalition’s Spotlight Initiative Gala Awards Dinner at Kia Telluride Supper Suite on January 25, 2020, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images)
Two separate and unrelated attacks on Asian women also occured in New York City on Tuesday, according to NBC New York.
The “X Men: Apocalypse” star spoke out against anti-Asian bias in a lengthy post on Instagram last week.
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“Over the past few days I’ve found myself at a loss for words at the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes,” Munn wrote. “The racist, verbal, and physical assaults have left my community fearful to step outside. These hate crimes have spiked since Covid and continue to increase even though we ask for help.”
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian shares advanced to record highs on Monday as successful coronavirus vaccine rollouts globally raise hopes of a rapid economic recovery amid new fiscal aid from Washington, while oil prices rose on heightened tensions in the Middle East.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan jumped 0.4% to 736.4.
Japan’s Nikkei climbed 1.1%, despite data showing the country’s recovery from its worst postwar recession slowed in the fourth quarter.
Australia’s benchmark index added 0.9% while E-mini futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.3% in early Asian trading.
China and Hong Kong markets are shut for the Lunar New Year holiday. U.S. stock markets will be closed on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.
The highlight of the week will probably be minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s January meeting, where policymakers decided to leave rates unchanged.
Data on inflation is due from the UK, Canada and Japan while Friday will see major economies including the United States release the preliminary February purchasing managers’ indices (PMI).
While economists expect inflation to stay benign for some while yet, the so-called “reflation trade” has gathered steam in recent days largely led by coronavirus vaccines and hopes of massive fiscal spending under U.S. President Joe Biden.
Biden pushed for the first major legislative achievement of his term, turning to a bipartisan group of local officials for help on his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan.
“In our view, as long as the rise (in inflation) is gradual, equity markets can continue to do well. However, unruly moves would certainly hurt investor sentiment,” said Esty Dwek, head of global market strategy, Natixis Investment Managers Solutions.
“Credit spreads have tightened sharply already, but they still have room to absorb some higher yields, making us more comfortable with credit risk than interest rate risk,” Dwek added.
“Commodities would be beneficiaries of an inflationary cycle, but they can still continue to recover without high core inflation as economies reopen and demand picks up.”
Oil prices climbed to the highest since January 2020 on hopes U.S. stimulus will boost the economy and fuel demand.
Prices were also buoyant after a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said it intercepted an explosive-laden drone fired by the Iran-aligned Houthi group, raising fears of fresh Middle East tensions.
Brent crude rose $1 to $63.43 a barrel. U.S. crude oil gained $1.2 to $60.7.
On Friday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq set record closing highs. The Dow finished 0.1% higher at 31,458.4 points, the S&P 500 gained 0.5% to 3,934.83 and the Nasdaq added 0.5% to 14,095.47.
Action in currencies was muted.
The dollar was slightly higher against the Japanese yen at 105.01 while the euro rose to $1.2125 and the British pound was up 0.3% at $1.3886. The risk sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollars climbed 0.1% each.
That left the dollar index steady at 90.426.
Bitcoin was barely changed in early Asian trading at $47,994, below a record high of $49,714.66. It posted gains of roughly 20% in a milestone week marked by the endorsement of major firms such as Elon Musk’s Tesla.
(Reporting by Swati Pandey in Sydney; Editing by Kim Coghill and Jacqueline Wong)
Asian Americans have been victims of increased violence and harassment since the coronavirus pandemic began, but recent attacks have prompted some to “hunker down” again.
USA TODAY
A series of violent crimes against Asians and Asian Americans has prompted activists and experts to warn that racist rhetoric about the coronavirus pandemic may be fueling a rise in hate incidents.
Police in Oakland, California, announced this week that they arrested a suspect in connection with a brutal attack of a 91-year-old man in Chinatown that was caught on camera. In less than a week, a Thai man was attacked and killed in San Francisco, a Vietnamese woman was assaulted and robbed of $1,000 in San Jose, and a Filipino man was attacked with a box cutter on the subway in New York City.
It’s unclear whether the crimes were racially motivated, but advocates calling for more to be done to address violence against Asian Americans say racist crimes against the community are historically underreported for a variety of reasons.
Meanwhile, police departments across the country are warning residents of increased crime around Lunar New Year, in part because of the threat of robberies during the multi-day celebrations that begin Friday. Cash is a customary gift.
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Violence against Asian Americans sharply increased in March as COVID-19 began spreading across the country, and some politicians, including former President Donald Trump, blamed China for the pandemic, said Russell Jeung, who created a tool that tracks hate incidents against Asian American Pacific Islander communitiescalled the Stop AAPI Hate tracker.
“When President Trump began and insisted on using the term ‘China virus,’ we saw that hate speech really led to hate violence,” said Jeung, chair of the Asian American studies department at San Francisco State University. “That sort of political rhetoric and that sort of anti-Asian climate has continued to this day.”
Acts of racist violence lead to increased anxiety and fear in a population that already has higher rates of anxiety and depression related to COVID-19 than other racial groups, Jeung said.
Stop AAPI Hate, Jeung’s website, which includes a self-reporting tool for harassment, discrimination and violent attacks, recorded 2,808 incidents of anti-Asian discrimination across the U.S. from its inception on March 19 to Dec. 31, 2020. Another organization, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, recorded more than 3,000 hate incidents in their self-reporting system since late April 2020 – by far the highest number in the tool’s four-year history.
The FBI collects national hate crime data, but data for 2020 and 2021 has not yet been released. Two hundred sixteen anti-Asian hate crimes were reported in 2019, according to the latest data available.
That number may be just a fraction of the true total given that fewer than half of the victims of a hate crime ever report it to the police, according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Jeung said the increase in hate incidents is a particular concern in urban areas. In New York City, police data shows there were 24 anti-Asian hate crimes related to the coronavirus between Jan. 1 and Nov. 29, 2020, compared with just three anti-Asian hate crimes in the same period in 2019.
‘We just want to be safe’: Hate crimes, harassment of Asian Americans rise amid coronavirus pandemic
“This increase was cultivated due to the anti-Asian rhetoric about the virus that was publicized, and individuals began to attack Asian New Yorkers, either verbal attack or physical assault,” Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison told reporters in August.
The spike in hate crimes led the NYPD to create an Asian Hate Crimes Task Force.
Activists including Amanda Nguyễn, co-founder of Rise, a sexual assault survivor advocacy organization, are raising awareness of the Oakland case and the other violent incidents involving Asian Americans. Nguyễn said she created an Instagram video about the attacks, which has since gone viral, because she was angered not only by the violence but by the lack of media attention the cases received.
“When I made that video I was tired of living in fear and I wanted to scream,” she told USA TODAY. “It’s so absurd that I have to say ‘Stop killing us.’ … We are literally fearing for our lives as we walk out of our door, and your silence, your silence rings through our heads.”
In the Oakland assault, the district attorney’s office is investigating whether there is enough evidence to support hate crime charges, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said in a statement to USA TODAY.
⚠️ WARNING: this video is hard to watch. Another shocking attack in Oakland’s Chinatown. 8th and Harrison Streets. Outside the Asian Resource Center.
20+ robbery/assault incidents in the neighborhood according to the Chinatown Chamber president. https://t.co/9bo9PzuqiLpic.twitter.com/8h6dkNA1TG
— Dion Lim (@DionLimTV) February 4, 2021
The suspect in the Oakland assault, Yahya Muslim, was charged with three counts of assault, inflicting great bodily injury and committing a crime against an elderly person, O’Malley announced at a news conference Monday.
Police said Muslim is believed to have attacked a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman the same day of the Chinatown attack.
Meanwhile, actors Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case and are donating that money to community organizations like Stop AAPI Hate.
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“The skyrocketing number of hate crimes against Asian Americans continues to grow, despite our repeated pleas for help,” they said on Twitter. “The crimes ignored and even excused.”
On Jan. 28, Vicha Ratanapakdee was attacked and later died in San Francisco. Eric Lawson, his son-in-law, told USA TODAYhe believes the 84-year-old was targeted because he was Asian. Lawson adde that his wife, who is Thai, was verbally assaulted twice and told to “go back to China” before the attack.
“Everyone is dancing around the issue, and no one’s addressing it,” he said.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin filed murder and elder abuse charges against Antoine Watson, but her office has “no evidence of what motivated this senseless attack,” spokesperson Rachel Marshall told USA TODAY.
In San Jose, a 64-year-old Vietnamese woman was assaulted last Wednesday and robbed of $1,000 in cash she had withdrawn for the holiday. No arrest has been made, and there is no indication the robbery was race-related, said public information officer Sgt. Christian Camarillo.
That same day in New York, 61-year-old Noel Quintana, who is of reportedly Filipino descent, was slashed in the face with a box cutter on the subway. Spokesperson Detective Sophia Mason told USA TODAY police were investigating but did not answer questions about whether the incident may have been motivated by race.
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Although it’s unclear whether the particular cases are racially motivated, they are certainly “related” and “horrific,” Jeung said.
“What makes it worse is we see our elderly and youth also targeted,” he said. “It seems like people are attacking vulnerable populations.”
CLOSE
As coronavirus spreads across the U.S., Asian Americans share how racism and microaggressions have, too.
USA TODAY
John C. Yang, president and CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said his organization has been tracking anti-Asian hate incidents and crimes for nearly 30 years and has received hundreds more hate incident reports in 2020 than in previous years. He said polls by IPSOS and Pew Research Center indicate that the true scope of hate Asian Americans are experiencing is probably much larger, and better data is needed.
“Although these reports are clearly incomplete, clearly just the tip of the iceberg that shows us that there is this dramatic increase in hate incidents,” he said, noting that it’s too soon to tell if that increase is continuing in 2021.
There are several reasons victims of a hate crime may not report it to the police, according to Yang.
Yang said victims may not be aware of the resources available for them, and there may be language barriers to accessing those resources for older Asian Americans in particular. He said there may be cultural barriers to reporting as well, including shame around being perceived as a victim. Some victims may also be concerned about interacting with law enforcement because of their immigration status.
Yang added that not all hate incidents rise to the level of crime, but they still “clearly inflict a level of mental trauma.” He estimated that only about 10% of the incidents reported to his organization could be considered crimes.
‘They look at me and think I’m some kind of virus’: What it’s like to be Asian during the coronavirus pandemic
Jeung, of Stop AAPI Hate, said that in addition to crimes such as physical violence, Asian Americans have reported experiencing violations of their civil rights including being denied service by businesses or rideshares, being verbally harassed with racial slurs and facing vandalism and property damage.
He said his wife was deliberately coughed on while jogging, noting the similarities to a New Jersey incident where a man was charged with making a terroristic threat after coughing on a supermarket employee and saying he had the coronavirus.
“There is such a climate of hate and anger that we need to again lower the temperature and remind people to treat others with respect,” he said.
President Joe Biden signed a memorandum in late January denouncing xenophobia and violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Yang said the the Biden administration’s words have made a difference, but the recent violence has caused the community to “hunker down again” during a normally celebratory time.
He said more needs to be done to ensure victims have support systems and to educate bystanders about safe intervention. He warned against relying too heavily on law enforcement.
Despite the horrific crimes, Jeung was excited to see the Oakland community organizing efforts to reduce crime in the neighborhood.
“What I’m really heartened by is the Asian American community is really standing up,” he said. “I want people to know we’re not simply victims of discrimination, but we’re advocating for racial justice for everyone in the United States and we’ll continue to do so.”
Follow N’dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg
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TOKYO — Asian shares mostly fell Thursday as caution set in over company earnings reports, recent choppy trading in technology stocks and prospects for more economic stimulus for a world battling a pandemic.
Japan’s Nikkei 225
NIK,
-1.03%
slipped 0.5% in early trading, while South Korea’s Kospi
180721,
-1.90%
dropped 1.6%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200
XJO,
-0.87%
slipped 0.6%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
HSI,
-1.35%
lost 1.2%, while the Shanghai Composite
SHCOMP,
-1.38%
was down 1%. Stocks rose in Indonesia
JAKIDX,
+0.63%
and Malaysia
FBMKLCI,
-0.25%
but fell in Singapore
STI,
-1.29%
and Taiwan
Y9999,
-0.43%.
Also on market players’ minds is the global vaccine rollout, which is becoming more organized in the U.S., but yet to play out in much of Asia, except for China, where the pandemic started.
“As the rally waned for the U.S. market, Asia markets can be seen left to their own devices into the Thursday session, and it appears that investors may be locking in some of the recent gains,” said Jingyi Pan, a senior market strategist for IG in Singapore.
Wall Street ended with modest gains, with the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.10%
inched up 3.86 points, or 0.1%, to 3,830.17, after swinging between a gain of 0.6% and a loss of 0.3%. The tiny gain extended the benchmark index’s winning streak to a third day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.12%
gained 36.12 points, or 0.1%, to 30,723.60. The tech-heavy Nasdaq
COMP,
-0.02%
slipped 2.23 points, or less than 0.1%, to 13,610.54. The index had briefly been above its all-time high set last week.
Energy, communications and financial stocks helped lift the market. Those gains were primarily kept in check by declines in companies that rely on consumer spending and technology stocks.
GameStop and other recently high-flying stocks notched modest gains Wednesday. GameStop
GME,
+2.68%
rose 2.7% and AMC
AMC,
+14.71%
climbed 14.7%. The stocks have been caught up in a speculative frenzy by traders in online forums who seek to inflict damage on Wall Street hedge funds that have bet the stocks would fall. GameStop plunged 60% on Tuesday, and AMC Entertainment lost 41.2%.
“There’s a tug of war that’s been brewing for a week or so now, that markets are ripe for a correction and whether the events of last week are a precipitating event,” said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group.
Stocks have been mostly rallying this week, an encouraging start to February after a late fade in January as volatility spiked amid worries about the timing and scope of another round of stimulus spending by the Biden administration, unease over the effectiveness of the government’s coronavirus vaccine distribution and turbulent swings in GameStop and other stocks hyped on social media.
That volatility has subsided this week, with Wall Street focusing mainly on corporate earnings reports while it keeps an eye on Washington for signs of progress on a new aid package.
Democrats and Republicans remain far apart on support for President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package, but investors are betting that the administration will opt for a reconciliation process to get the legislation through Congress.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude
CLH21,
+0.63%
gained 15 cents to %55.84 a barrel. Brent crude
BRNJ21,
+0.51%,
the international standard, added 6 cents to $58.52 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar
USDJPY,
+0.13%
inched down to 105.02 Japanese yen from 105.06 yen.
Google has agreed to pay $2.5 million to more than 5,500 employees and job applicants impacted by alleged systematic pay and hiring discrimination. The US Department of Labor found that female software engineers were being underpaid. It also identified “hiring rate differences that disadvantaged female and Asian applicants” for Google engineering positions.
As part of the settlement, Google will hand over $1,353,052 in back pay and interest to 2,565 female engineers. It will also pay $1,232,000 in back pay and interest to 1,757 female engineering applicants and 1,219 Asian engineering applicants for “engineering positions not hired.”
The alleged disparities impacted employees at Google offices in Mountain View, Seattle, and Kirkland, Washington.
Google will also set aside $1,250,000 for pay-equity adjustments, for a total of $3.8 million to resolve this issue. That $1.25 million is earmarked for engineers in Mountain View, Seattle, Kirkland, and New York, which house 50 percent of Google’s engineering staff in the US, according to the Department of Labor.
The news comes after years of conflict between Google workers and management. In 2018, more than 20,000 employees walked out of work to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment allegations. Earlier this year, roughly 230 employees and contractors formed a minority union. The organization, the Alphabet Workers Union, now has more than 800 members. AWU specifically wanted contractors to be part of the union, as they typically get left out of the high salaries and benefits enjoyed by full-time employees.
“Pay discrimination remains a systemic problem,” said Jenny R. Yang, director of the office of federal contract compliance programs. “Employers must conduct regular pay equity audits to ensure that their compensation systems promote equal opportunity.”
In a statement emailed to The Verge, a Google spokesperson said: “We believe everyone should be paid based upon the work they do, not who they are, and invest heavily to make our hiring and compensation processes fair and unbiased. For the past eight years, we have run annual internal pay equity analysis to identify and address any discrepancies. We’re pleased to have resolved this matter related to allegations from the 2014-2017 audits and remain committed to diversity and equity and to supporting our people in a way that allows them to do their best work.”
When chef Eric Sze wakes up in New York City, he often watches video clips of his friends in Taiwan singing karaoke via Instagram. “It’s always the first thing I see in the morning,” Sze, co-founder of the Taiwanese restaurant 886, told NBC Asian America. “Nothing like starting your day with a fresh dose of FOMO” — or fear of missing out.
Sze said he feels jealous watching his parents, grandparents and friends in Taiwan — where there are fewer than 1,000 total cases of coronavirus in a population of more than 23 million — going about their normal lives while the U.S. contends with lockdowns, new variants of the virus, a slower than expected rollout of vaccines and an unfathomable 400,000 lives lost.
It’s a common sentiment shared by many Asian Americans watching their family members and friends in Asian countries, such as Taiwan, South Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, where widespread use of masks, experience with past pandemics and government leadership that included mandatory quarantines and emergency cash payments has led to exceedingly low infection rates.
“I do think my greatest frustration is the lack of communal support as a country,” Sze said of the United States. “I get that bipartisan politics tend to divide the country, but a part of me thought humanity would always come before politics — apparently not.”
Sze, whose restaurant raised nearly $150,000 to provide 15,000 meals to hospitals and shelters during the darkest days of the pandemic in New York, said his family in Taiwan is “concerned, but not surprised” by America’s response to Covid-19: “The price of perceived freedom seems to be exponential with pandemics.”
Eric Sze.Courtesy of Laura Murray
When Las Vegas resident Carla Doan sees images of her family in Vietnam being carefree and socializing, she said it makes her yearn to live a normal maskless life in the U.S.
In Communist-led Vietnam, the public feels a shared ownership of Covid-19, according to public health experts, and overwhelmingly supported its government’s rapid response.
Despite a border wall with China and a population of 96 million, Vietnam has reported fewer than 2,000 total cases and 35 deaths during the pandemic.
Last January, the deputy prime minister ordered Vietnam’s ministries to take drastic measures to prevent the spread of the virus, such as locking down and evacuating cities, imposing travel restrictions, closing the border with China and employing a labor-intensive contact-tracing operation.
Visitors and people who were possibly exposed to the virus were sent to free quarantine centers for two weeks and the government communicated regularly with the public and sent text messages to phones telling people how to best protect themselves.
“I think the difference [between Vietnam and the U.S.] is that when their government says to do something, everyone follows the guidelines,” said Doan. “I just wish our leaders here would have done what they did.”
Doan said she’s frustrated because half of Americans appear to follow mask mandates and social distancing rules, but “because the other half isn’t willing,” it makes her feel her efforts are futile.
Her 16-month-old son wasn’t able to have a first birthday party because of the pandemic and Doan is unsure if he’ll be able to have one for his second birthday either.
Some Asian Americans knew collectivist Asian countries would manage the virus and reopen quicker than the U.S. because they value the needs of a group.
Diana Choi.Courtesy of Diana Choi
Diana Choi, who lived in South Korea as a young adult and now resides in Dallas, said South Korea succeeded in managing Covid-19 because its people are “community-focused” and not individualistic.
The hyperconnected country of 51 million benefited from fast and free testing and expansive tracing technology. South Korea also learned lessons from mistakes made during the spread of MERS in 2015.
“I knew they were going to take precautions, always wear a mask and social distance because they’re so afraid of what people would think of them if they didn’t,” said Choi. “In America, wearing a mask is politicized when it really shouldn’t be.”
When she sees family and friends in South Korea taking walks or going out to eat, Choi — who has a heart condition that makes her high-risk for Covid complications — said she is “jealous that they’re in a place where people care about other people and take precautions.”
Choi’s parents live in Gwanju, South Korea and often ask their daughter about the U.S. health care system. “They say America is kind of a laughing stock,” Choi said. “America is supposed to be the strongest country, but they see us become so divided and chaotic over a pandemic.”
She said South Korea’s system of universal health care also makes a difference.
“It [health care] isn’t a privilege over there, which was another contributing factor for them to quickly test people and get everything under control,” Choi explained. “I talk to my mom every day and they get updates if there is a Covid patient nearby. Here, we have no idea who has it and a lot of people don’t think it’s a very big issue.”
Of course not all Asian Americans are envious of what’s happening in Asian countries. While South Korea, a democratic republic, has been innovative and transparent with its citizens, authoritarian-run countries like Cambodia have been accused by human rights experts of falsifying case numbers and using the pandemic to undermine the rule of law.
In Cambodia, a nation of around 16 million people, there have been fewer than 500 infections and no deaths reported.
Some believe Cambodia’s low Covid-19 rates are because three-quarters of its population live in rural settings and spend ample time outdoors. Others say low rates of testing and the Cambodian People’s Party, led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, isn’t telling the whole story.
“The government doesn’t give true numbers,” said Sindy Barretto, who lives in Pepperell, Massachusetts, and has family in Siem Reap and Battambang, Cambodia. “The prime minister is up for election so he’s going to try to portray this image of safety and that he has everything under control.”
Barretto stays in touch with her relatives overseas through Facebook and said when she sees photos of them gathering in large groups she “feels sorry for them” that they’re not being safe.
She believes Cambodia is losing lives to Covid-19, but that the deaths are classified as being due to heat stroke or a heart attack, based on conversations Barretto has had with family members.
While Cambodia’s rates could be higher than reported, their hospitals have not been overwhelmed like in the U.S. or Europe.
Early on in the pandemic, Cambodia temporarily closed its borders to foreigners, particularly from the West, and shut down schools and entertainment venues. The country also quarantined nearly 30,000 garment workers.
While the Trump administration’s handling of Covid-19 has been widely criticized by public health officials at home and abroad, President Joe Biden recently laid out a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package with a goal of vaccinating 150 million people and reopening schools in his first 100 days. He is also implementing a 100-day federal mask mandate and deploying FEMA and the National Guard to set up vaccine clinics throughout the country.
“People in Asia definitely laugh at America because they say that we are supposedly a first world country and now we’re dying at a faster rate than they are,” said Barretto. “I still think we’re doing a wonderful job [in the U.S.] because we’re taking precautions. If we didn’t do all this social distancing or putting on a mask, I think we’d be in worse shape. It is what it is right now.”
