Since mid-March, a U.S.-based coalition has tracked more than 2,100 anti-Asian hate incidents, a troubling figure that Asian American advocates say is being fueled in part by political rhetoric against China during the coronavirus pandemic.While racial slurs and other forms of verbal harassment constituted the vast majority of the incidents, nearly eight percent involved physical assaults, businesses barring Asian Americans from entering their establishments due to misplaced coronavirus fears, and attackers coughing and spitting on victims, according to STOP AAPI Hate, an anti-Asian hate tracker.
 
In one incident in March, a group of African American teenagers on a commuter rail in San Francisco used their backpacks to attack a mask-wearing Asian American, saying he had COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
 Chinese Americans Confront Racism While Helping Battle COVID-19 Chinese Americans raise funds for medical supplies despite rising racial threats In another occurrence in April, a stranger threw a large rock through the atrium window of a Chinese American family’s house in Santa Rosa, California. The house had Chinese writing along the front door as a blessing for good health and harmony.
 
“These are first-hand accounts where individuals are describing harrowing and traumatizing experiences, including what is being said to them when they’re being attacked,” said Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, one of the coalition partners.Asian Americans have been targeted before during public health crises, as was the case during the 2003 SARS epidemic. The latest wave of anti-Asian hate comes at a time of heightened tensions over the pandemic fueled by the anti-China rhetoric of President Donald Trump and other politicians. Trump, who initially praised China for its handling of the crisis, subsequently blamed China’s leader Xi Jinping for waiting weeks to report the outbreak in Wuhan to the World Health Organization and covering up the severity of the problem.
 
Trump has repeatedly referred to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” and “kung-flu,” terms that Asian American advocates say are derogatory and have exacerbated the scapegoating of Americans of Asian descent.
 
Trump disputes that those and other terms are racist.  White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who several weeks ago criticized the phrase kung-flu as “highly offensive,” and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany both said this week that the president used the term merely to highlight that the virus originated in China.
 
But Asian American leaders say the meaning is not lost on their fast-growing community.
 
“Those are terms meant to be humiliating,” said Gene Wu, a Chinese American Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives.  
 Bill Tung, a Democratic state assemblyman in California, said the rhetoric has had a direct impact on the surge in anti-Asian harassment and hate crimes.  
 
“You see leaders express words that really give license to other people to express those same sentiments and also to act on them,” Tung said.
 
In a recent report examining the link between political rhetoric and anti-Asian bias, STOP AAPI Hate, the Asian American coalition, found that reports of anti-Asian discrimination spiked after Trump repeatedly used the term “Chinese virus.”
 
While the vast majority of the 2,100-plus incidents recorded by STOP AAPI Hate do not rise to the level of a hate crime as defined by statute, more than 100 do, according to legal experts.  
 Asian Celebs Work to Combat Racist Attacks Amid Pandemic The FBI reports there has been an uptick in hate crimes and harassment against Asian Americans since the outbreak of COVID-19, which first appeared in Wuhan, China, late last yearThis surge in anti-Asian hate crime comes at a time when most American cities are reporting an overall decline in other categories of bias attacks, according to Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at the California State University.The FBI defines a hate crime as a criminal offense motivated by bias against the victim’s race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity  
 
California, home to the nation’s largest Asian American population, has been particularly hard hit. In Los Angeles, police recorded 30 anti-Asian hate crimes through April 30, compared to a total of four for all of 2019, according to police data compiled by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
 
In San Francisco, there were five anti-Asian hate crimes through March 31, compared to six for all of last year, according to police data.  
 
Other major cities have reported far fewer cases of anti-Asian hate crimes.  In New York City, police recorded just two incidents through May 17, compared with three for last year. In April, an Asian American woman in Brooklyn, New York, suffered second degree burns after a man poured acid on her.
 Hate Crimes Soar in Major US CitiesJewish community has been most frequent target of hate crimes amid resurgence in anti-Semitism, according the report by Center for the Study of Hate and ExtremismOne of the most horrific anti-Asian hate crimes came in March when a teenager stabbed an Asian American man and his two young children at a supermarket in Midland, Texas.  The suspect reportedly carried out the attack “because he thought the family was Chinese and infecting people with the coronavirus.”“In the cities where anti-Asian hate crimes increased, they increased significantly to the extent that there were almost as much anti-Asian hate crime as we had for all of last year or significantly more,” Levin said.
 
The surge in the crimes has not been limited to the U.S. From Melbourne, Australia, to Vancouver, Canada, Asian American communities have reported a surge in discrimination, harassment and assault.
 
In Vancouver, billed as the “most Asian city outside Asia,” there were 20 anti-Asian hate crimes through April 29, up from 12 for all of last year.  London, another major city with a large Asian population, had 267 anti-Asian attacks, compared with 375 for all of last year.
 
“This is a global pandemic of hate,” said Helen Zia, a prominent Chinese American civil rights activist and author.  
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For a moment, Congress had a chance to act on a policing overhaul, mobilized by a national trauma and overwhelming public support. Those efforts have stalled now and seem unlikely to be revived in an election year.  It’s latest example of how partisanship and polarization on Capitol Hill have hamstrung Congress’ ability to meet the moment and respond meaningfully to public opinion.  Major changes in policing policy appear likely to join gun control and immigration as social issues where even with Americans’ overwhelming support, their elected representatives are unable or unwilling to go along, especially when President Donald Trump is indifferent or opposed.”In this moment, as it was with gun violence and immigration reform, we don’t know where the president really is,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who weeks ago was expressing skepticism weeks ago about a breakthrough. “If this were the first time we were in this situation, I’d be more hopeful,” he said then.  Rep. Karen Bass joined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other House Democrats spaced for social distancing, speaks during a news conference on the House East Front Steps on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 25, 2020.The bipartisan outcry over the deaths of George Floyd and other Black Americans appeared to be a chance for Congress to reshape its reputation. Polls showed nearly all Americans in a favor of some measure of change to the criminal justice system, and both chambers moved quickly to draft legislation.  There were common elements in the House Democratic proposal and the Senate Republican bill, including a national database of use-of-force incidents by law enforcement and restrictions on police chokeholds. But efforts to bridge the divides bogged down in a predictable fight over process and exposed again how little trust there is between the Senate’s leaders, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.McConnell said Democrats refused to take him at his word that he was willing to negotiate over the final bill, and he pitched a supposedly fair and freewheeling floor debate. Schumer and other Democrats saw little that was genuine in McConnell’s overtures, noting that during his tenure as GOP leader, the sharp-elbowed Kentucky Republican has permitted almost no open floor debate on legislation.  The swift rise and fall of prospects for the police bill showed how lawmakers are often driven more by the views of their parties’ hard-liners than overall public opinion.  “The incentive structure is misaligned for compromise. That’s the reality of it. Members are more likely to be rewarded electorally for representing their base primary voters than for reaching out to voters in the middle,” said Michael Steel, who was a top aide to former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. “The giants of yesteryear are remembered as such because voters rewarded them for successfully legislating. And that just seems to be less and less the case.”Public support for some kind of policing overhaul after Floyd’s death is overwhelming. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows 29% of Americans say the criminal justice system needs a complete overhaul, 40% say it needs major changes and 25% say it needs minor changes.Democrats Accuse Attorney General Barr of Political Meddling in US Justice SystemWilliam Barr is the ‘president’s fixer,’ said Jerrold Nadler, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary CommitteeThere are other high-profile examples where public support has been unable to overcome partisanship in Congress — most notably on gun control. An AP-NORC survey from March 2019 found 83% of Americans in favor of a federal law requiring background checks on all potential gun buyers. Trump has also supported the idea.But gun control legislation has gone nowhere in Washington.The parties have also failed to make progress in overhauling immigration laws, despite broad public support. The most overwhelmingly popular measure — granting legal protections to young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children — has gotten caught in the fray, with hundreds of thousands of such “Dreamer” immigrants caught in legal limbo.  This gridlock has been exacerbated by Trump’s reputation on Capitol Hill as an unreliable negotiating partner on major issues. On policing, he spoke generally about supporting legislation but exerted little political capital when the process hit a roadblock.  “To do really hard things you always need a president leaning in and engaged,” said Brendan Buck, a top aide to former Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., during Trump’s first two years in office. “And on the really hard things he has not shown a willingness to get engaged.”The police debate also suffered from the realities of the political calendar. With the Congressional Black Caucus, progressive activists and the civil rights community all calling the Republican bill too weak to be salvaged, some Democrats saw little incentive to give ground now when they might be able to get more if their party has sweeping successes in the November elections, now just over four months away.  “Why cut a bad deal now when you could potentially be in the driver’s seat to write a real bill that effects real change in just a few months?” said Matt House, a former Schumer aide.  Some veteran lawmakers have found ways to navigate the fierce partisanship on Capitol Hill.  GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and the committee’s top Democrat, Patty Murray of Washington, have shepherded a major education policy rewrite and legislation to combat opioids through a McConnell-led Senate. They did so by building sweeping consensus among lawmakers in both parties before committee or floor action.  Murray said in an interview that there was little attempt to do that kind of behind-the-scenes work on policing.”This didn’t even smell like an attempt to get something done,” Murray said. “The feeling that you want to accomplish something, that you want to get something done … is a very different feeling than we saw with policing reform.”
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European Union countries failed to settle on Friday on a final “safe list” of countries whose residents could travel to the bloc from July, with the United States, Brazil and Russia set to be excluded.Ambassadors from the 27 EU members convened from Friday afternoon to establish criteria for granting quarantine-free access from next Wednesday.A redrawn text of 10-20 countries was put to them, but many said they needed to consult first with their governments, diplomats said. The list did not include the United States, Brazil or Russia, one diplomat said.Discussions were continuing overnight, with the EU countries expected to give informal replies by Saturday evening, people familiar with the matter said.U.S. passengers may be allowed to travel if they meet certain conditions such as passing temperature checks, two U.S. officials said.The European Commission had advised that the bloc first lift internal border controls and then gradually open up to outsiders. However, the first step has not gone according to plan.Greece is mandating coronavirus tests for arrivals from a range of EU countries, including France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, with self-isolation until results are known.The Czech Republic has said it will not allow in tourists from Portugal, Sweden and part of Poland.There is broad agreement that the bloc should only open up to those with a similar or better epidemiological situation, but there are questions about how to assess a country’s handling of the epidemic and the reliability of data.A number of countries, such as Tanzania, Turkmenistan and Laos have no reported cases in the past two weeks, according to EU agency, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).Based on ECDC data for the two weeks to Thursday, a range of countries are clearly in a worse situation than the European Union.They include the United States, Mexico, Brazil and much of Latin America, Russia, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.Despite pressure from U.S. airlines and unions, the White House has not committed to mandating fresh air travel safety measures in the wake of the pandemic. Discussions between airlines and government officials including Vice President Mike Pence on Friday over temperature checks ended without an agreement.In a statement, Pence’s office said the parties also discussed “the best path forward for allowing Americans to safely travel internationally again.”The Commission has suggested the western Balkans countries — Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia — should be admitted.However, according to the ECDC data, the number of cases in Bosnia and North Macedonia could be too high. 
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Beyond the physical burdens of COVID-19, the disease can impose an emotional and spiritual weight on patients. It extends to their loved ones and to the health workers who treat them.Matthew Arlyck is staff chaplain at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia in the eastern U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Ordained as a Presbyterian minister in January 2019, he joined the center three months later. Now 44, Arlyck says the pandemic has challenged his ability to provide hands-on solace and comfort. Physical contact and nuanced facial expression have been key tools of chaplaincy, he explained in a Zoom interview.The interview has been edited for length and clarity.MATTHEW ARLYCK: I’m so used to the experience of providing support to people who are in grief and trauma as such a tactile and physical one. I rely so much on nonverbal communication, on people being able to read my face, but also for me to be able to read theirs. And so, it’s harder to have an experience of your impact on people, because I go into a patient’s room who’s COVID positive, then wearing a gown and gloves. And if I’m going to be close to them, literally at the bedside, then I also would be wearing a face shield. And so, even though I’m wearing a mask, my eyes become that much more important in terms of what they convey. I can still gesture with my hands.VOA: I understand that the hospital chaplain’s work isn’t only with patients but also with the staff.Absolutely. That happens both on a very informal basis where we just are talking to staff and just checking in with them and seeing how they’re doing, to much more programmatic efforts of having call-in times for prayer, for mindfulness and moments to show appreciation for staff. But it’s an ongoing challenge, because staff are very busy and don’t necessarily feel comfortable opening up about how they’re feeling.Are you able to level with each other about these difficulties?Oh, yeah. A big part of connecting with them is empathizing and being able to be vulnerable and being able to share a little bit about my own experience.Help me understand why religion and spirituality belong in a hospital.I believe that we are all spiritual beings, in that we are all in the process of making meaning. And it’s been very challenging in this time of COVID for people to make meaning of this experience, because it’s unprecedented, and it’s a particularly unsettling time. For some people, their beliefs get validated. For others, it really shakes those beliefs to their core.What my experience has been and what I hear people talking about is the interconnectedness, both in ways that are beautiful and kind of emotionally supportive, but also in the ways in which our interconnectedness is also what right now is dangerous.In our hospital, we’ve had couples that have died, people who have lived together for their whole adult lives. And because of that closeness that they have, have infected each other and have died because of that closeness.The Rev. Matthew Arlyck, shown in selfies, gears up for work at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia.You mentioned the beauty of interconnection, as well. What about for you?I’ve connected with all kinds of staff who I never had before. Clerks, people who work in registration, janitorial staff. I think there’s a sense in which we really are all in this together. And I find that people are responding so much more honestly when we’re all struggling so much.This is exactly what you signed up for as a hospital chaplain, isn’t it?Yeah. This is what I feel like I was called to do. And I’m so grateful that I’ve been put in this place at this time.Now, you’re an ordained Presbyterian minister. How does your own personal faith and theology figure into your work during the COVID era?A big part of my Christian faith has to do with a very particular kind of hope that I think is sort of unique to Christianity in that its sort of irrational, almost foolish hope in God’s ability to break through in a world that can feel utterly dark.And it really feels very distinct from optimism, because personally, I find it pretty difficult to be optimistic in the world that we live in. But I’m always hopeful. And I think that that really comes from that sense that God can do the impossible. And that’s kind of manifested in Jesus’ life and in Jesus’ death and resurrection.Are you saying there’s some sort of golden message hidden in this catastrophe?I’m careful not to say that this is happening for a good reason, but I do think that there is always a seed of transformation, even in the worst trauma, the worst oppression and the worst kind of evil, whether it’s human-made or whether it’s a disease.This report originated with VOA’s English to Africa service.  
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U.S. intelligence has concluded that the Russian military offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan to kill American troops and other coalition forces, The New York Times reported Friday.Citing officials briefed on the matter, the Times said the United States determined months ago that a Russian military intelligence unit linked to assassination attempts in Europe had offered rewards for successful attacks last year.Islamist militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money, the newspaper said.The White House, the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined requests from Reuters for comment on the Times report.President Donald Trump has been briefed on the intelligence finding, the Times said. It said the White House had yet to authorize any steps against Russia in response to the bounties.Of the 20 Americans killed in combat in 2019, the Times said, it was not clear which deaths were under suspicion.After nearly 20 years of fighting the Taliban, the United States is looking for a way to extricate itself from Afghanistan and to achieve peace between the U.S.-backed government and the militant group, which controls swaths of the country.On February 29, the United States and the Taliban struck a deal that called for a phased U.S. troop withdrawal.U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan is down to nearly 8,600, well ahead of a schedule agreed with the Taliban, in part because of concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, U.S. and NATO officials said in late May.
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A Lebanese American businessman who was a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and who helped broker the release of American hostages was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison sentence on child sex charges.
George Nader pleaded guilty in January to bringing a 14-year-old boy from the Czech Republic to the U.S. 20 years ago to engage in sexual activity. He also acknowledged possessing child pornography.
Nader’s name appears more than 100 times in the Mueller report. It details Nader’s efforts to serve as liaison between Russians and members of President Donald Trump’s transition team.
In the 1990s, Nader served as a broker to facilitate the release of American hostages held in the Middle East.
The convictions carried a 10-year mandatory minimum. The judge could have imposed a longer term, though prosecutors also recommended a 10-year sentence.
Nader also agreed to pay $150,000 in restitution to the Czech boy he abused, who is now an adult and testified at Friday’s sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria by phone.
“George destroyed practically my entire life, and I am trying to put it back together piece by piece,” he said through a translator.
Nader’s interest in children and his status as a behind-the-scenes power player both extend back decades. And there’s at least some indication that the latter shielded him from the consequences of the former.
Almost 30 years ago, Nader was caught by customs officials transporting two films, hidden in candy tins, of minor boys into the U.S. He received a six-month sentence, a term that prosecutors in the current case acknowledge is “far below what would be expected of such a crime today.”
In 1991, as he awaited sentencing, his case was twice delayed so he could continue his work on hostage negotiations. Court records cited by his current defense lawyers indicate that British hostage Jon McCarthy and American hostage Edward Tracy were released in July of that year and that Nader played an outsized role in securing the release. Participants in the negotiations wrote letters to the judge on Nader’s behalf.
Later, in 2003, Nader sentenced to a 1-year prison term in the Czech Republic after being convicted there on 10 counts of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term in 2003.
Prosecutors say the abused boys were largely child prostitutes. The 14-year-old boy brought to the U.S. also alleged he was victimized by Nader int he Czech case, though Nader’s lawyers say he wasn’t convicted there. The two sides dispute the extent of abuse inflicted on the boy in the U.S. but Nader has admitted to one sex act.
Nader “used his contacts and his wealth to accomplish” bringing the Czech boy into the U.S., prosecutor Jay Prabhu wrote.  
The current case against Nader began in 2018 when images were found on his phone after it was confiscated under a search warrant connected to the Mueller probe.  
The images found in Nader’s phones at Dulles International Airport ended up not being the basis for the child-pornography conviction. Instead, prosecutors relied on images and videos he received via email in 2012 that in some cases involved sadistic depictions of infants or toddlers.
Even though it had no bearing on the sentence Nader received, defense lawyers and prosecutors continued to argue at Friday’s sentencing hearing as to whether the images found on the phone were child pornography. Nader’s attorney, Jonathan Jeffress, acknowledged that the photos showed naked children and were obscene, but said they amounted to “dirty jokes” and that Nader had put his struggles with child pornography behind him in 2012.
Prosecutors say the images included clear depictions of child pornography and bestiality and show that Nader is a lifelong recidivist.
Parts of the sentencing papers detailing Nader’s testimony to the special counsel remain blacked out.
Nader, for his part, apologized for his actions at Friday’s hearing.
“I have listened to what’s been said about me,” he said. “I can say I am sincerely, deeply sorry for the suffering I have caused.”
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