Monday Briefing | March 1

Photo: Chinatown residents in San Francisco take the streets to protest against hate crimes against the Asian-American community. Photo courtesy of CNN.

Stories to Follow: 

A surge in hate crimes against Asian Americans: President Biden calls it “unacceptable” and “un-American”: Hate crimes against Asians have been on the rise in New York City as well as across the United States since COVID-19 has led to an increase in racism against Asian Americans. In the past year, researchers and activist groups have reported thousands of incidents and attacks associated with racism against Asian Americans, a surge in hate that they link to former President Trump’s repeated references to the coronavirus and the “China virus.”

For this, President Joe Biden addressed the rise of Anti-Asian American xenophobia on his sixth day in office. President Biden said, “This is unacceptable, this is un-American. I’ve asked the Department of Justice to strengthen its partnership with the Asian-American Pacific Islander community to prevent those hate crimes.”

Canada lawmakers to vote on labeling China’s treatment of Uighurs as genocide: Canada’s parliament has recently passed a non-binding motion that says China’s treatment of its Muslim Uighur populations constitutes genocide. Erin O’Toole of the nation’s Conservative Party told reporters that, “More than one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims are or have been in camps. The testimonies we’ve heard from witnesses and survivors [have]been horrifying.” Moreover, the United Nations human rights advocates have claimed that at least one million Muslims are imprisoned in camps in Xinjiang, an autonomous territory in Northwest China. 

In addition to the deteriorated Canada-China relations since December 2018 when Canada arrested an executive of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under pressure domestically to take a more rigorous stance against China. Last month, the United Kingdom accused China of violating human rights amounting to its “horrific barbarism” against the Uighurs.

Happening This Week:

Free Meditation and Yoga at MindfulNYU: MindfulNYU offers FREE yoga and meditation classes throughout the week during the academic year. Please find the link here.

In Your Free Time:

Get some Palestinian street food without ever leaving the streets of Brooklyn! Ayat, which opened back in October in Bay Ridge, offers shawarma, falafel, creamy hummus and sweet baklava. With plenty of outdoor dining, you don’t have to return home before tucking in to your pita sandwich.

This week’s Monday Briefing was brought to you by Emma Hong.