Police, communities across US fight back against anti-Asian hate crimes

People participate in a protest to demand an end to anti-Asian violence on April 04, 2021 in New York City. (AFP)
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Updated 05 April 2021
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Police, communities across US fight back against anti-Asian hate crimes

  • Across the United States, law enforcement agencies are scrambling to better protect Asian communities amid a wave of violence targeting them since lockdowns

SAN JOSE: More than a dozen San Jose, California, police officers walked through the white arches of the Grand Century Mall in “Little Saigon” to reassure a Vietnamese-American community fearful over the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States.
The officers walked through the arcade of hair and nail salons, restaurants serving Vietnamese cuisine, and herbal medicine shops on Saturday, talking to business owners and patrons. They then conducted a similar tour of San Jose’s Japantown, where a citizen patrol group was formed following the deadly attacks on Asian spas in the Atlanta area on March 16.
“We know that there is a lot of angst, fear with our Asian community,” said San Jose’s police chief, Anthony Mata, during his visit to Little Saigon. “It’s important for us to have that dialogue, engage with them and see how we can help.”
Across the United States, law enforcement agencies are scrambling to better protect Asian communities amid a wave of violence targeting them since lockdowns to cope with the coronavirus pandemic began about a year ago. A recent report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, showed that while hate crimes overall in the United States had fallen slightly in 2020, crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) had jumped by 145%.
A vicious assault last week in which a man kicked a 65-year-old immigrant from the Philippines in New York City multiple times was captured on video and went viral, further stoking fears about anti-Asian hate crimes.
New York City has deployed a team of undercover Asian police officers. Other major cities, from San Jose to Chicago, have boosted patrols in Asian neighborhoods and sought to forge closer ties with communities, some of which have sought to fill gaps the police can’t fill.
Leanna Louie, who has organized residents to patrol San Francisco’s Chinatown, said the city’s police force of about 2,000 doesn’t have the resources. “It’s impossible,” she said.
Paul Luu, chief executive officer of the Chinese American Service League, welcomed the “revved up” police presence in Chicago’s Chinatown, which he said built on an already supportive relationship that includes Chinese-speaking officers on the beat. His group is focused on educating the community on hate crimes and encouraging victims, many reluctant due to language barriers or wariness of the police, to come forward.
Luu pointed to a recent attack on a 60-year-old Vietnamese immigrant on the North Side of Chicago who was initially reluctant to file a report. Official data shows Chicago recorded two anti-Asian hate crimes in 2020 — the same as 2019 — while such crimes spiked to 28 in New York last year from three in 2019.
“The numbers may be very low in Chicago, but it does not mean that it is not happening,” Luu said.

DRIVEN BY DISINFORMATION
Not everyone believes more policing is the answer.
Grace Pai, director of organizing at the Chicago branch of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said she is against a larger police presence, citing distrust of law enforcement.
Pai said the police response in the Atlanta area shootings, where an officer seemed to minimize the attack by saying the shooter had “a really bad day,” was emblematic of a broader police bias. Six of the eight killed were of Asian descent.
“Asian Americans have been negatively impacted by policing,” she said. “We really don’t see the police playing a role in stopping these crimes from occurring.”
Since the Atlanta shootings, the Los Angeles Police Department has increased patrols and police visibility where many people of Asian heritage live and work, especially in and around Chinatown, Koreatown and Little Tokyo.
Blake Chow, who is the AAPI coordinator for the Los Angeles Police Department, said comments made by then-President Donald Trump blaming the pandemic on China and using remarks such as the “kung flu” have contributed to anti-Asian sentiment.
“We don’t have evidence of any hate group operating in LA that is focusing on the Asian, Pacific Islander community,” said Chow, a deputy police chief. “The rise is seen in individual acts and it seems driven by disinformation on COVID, some of it from the former president.”
Chow said the department is holding forums with the AAPI community to get feedback on what more the police should do, as well as to educate community members on how to report troubling encounters, even if they may not amount to a crime, such as when someone utters a racial slur.
“We want to document hate incidents, as they can be a forerunner to an actual hate crime. If we can document a pattern of conduct and track those, we can bring it to a judge for enhanced sentencing.”
The rise in attacks so alarmed retired San Jose police veteran Rich Saito that he added a patrol unit to a community group keeping watch over Japantown. Deluged by offers to help, Saito said he has trained 40 to 50 volunteers to walk the streets and document and report any suspicious activity.
“I’m very concerned about the safety of this community, especially the seniors,” said Saito, who escorted police chief Mata on a tour of the neighborhood on Saturday. “The police department does the best it can, but they can’t be here all the time, every day.”


Greek coast guard says over 600 migrants rescued from 2 fishing boats

Updated 57 min 56 sec ago
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Greek coast guard says over 600 migrants rescued from 2 fishing boats

  • The first fishing boat, carrying 352 people, was spotted overnight about 55 kilometers south of the tiny island of Gavdos
  • The second was found 90 kilometers south of the island of Crete with 278 people on board

ATHENS: More than 600 migrants were rescued overnight and early Friday from two wooden fishing boats found sailing miles (kilometers) from the southernmost part of Greece, the country’s coast guard said.

The first fishing boat, carrying 352 people, was spotted overnight about 30 nautical miles (35 miles, 55 kilometers) south of the tiny island of Gavdos, the coast guard said. Passengers were rescued by a ship from the European border patrol agency FRONTEX, aided by a coast guard patrol boat and four other vessels.

The second was found 50 nautical miles (about 60 miles, 90 kilometers) south of the island of Crete with 278 people on board. The passengers were picked up by a passing Portuguese-flagged cargo ship. In both cases, the migrants were transported to Crete.

There was no immediate information on the nationalities of those on board the two fishing boats.

Another two boats carrying migrants were located in the same area on Thursday, the coast guard said. One, carrying 73 men, was found south of Gavdos and another with 26 people, including one woman and three minors, was found near the coast of southern Crete.

The coast guard said those on the smaller boat told authorities they had set sail the previous evening from Tobruk in Libya, and had each paid smugglers either 4,000 euros ($5,500) for their passage to Greece. Two Sudanese teenagers, one aged 16 and the other 19, were arrested on suspicion of migrant smuggling after other passengers identified them as having been operating the boat.

Greece has been on one of the preferred routes into the European Union for people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia for decades.

Arrivals from neighboring Turkiye to the east and the Libyan coast to the south spiked last year, with Greece recording more than 60,000 people arriving — the vast majority by sea — in 2024, compared to just over 48,000 the previous year, according to figures from the UN refugee agency.

As of June 15 this year, a total of 16,290 arrivals were recorded, with more than 14,600 of those by sea.

With authorities closely patrolling the eastern sea border with Turkiye to prevent migrant boats reaching nearby Greek islands, smugglers appear to be increasingly opting for the much longer and riskier Mediterranean Sea crossing from the north African coast to the southern tip of Greece, using larger boats into which they can cram more people.


Health officials issue warnings as UK bakes in the first heat wave of 2025

Updated 20 June 2025
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Health officials issue warnings as UK bakes in the first heat wave of 2025

  • Temperatures are expected to peak at 34 degrees Celsius
  • The UK Health Security Agency has issued an amber heat health alert covering all of England

LONDON: British health officials are warning people across the country to take precautions when out in the sun as the UK bakes under its first heat wave of the year.

Temperatures are expected to peak at 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of eastern England on Saturday following a week of unusually warm weather, according to the national weather agency the Met Office. That’s about 12 C (22 F) higher than normal for this time of year.

The UK Health Security Agency has issued an amber heat health alert covering all of England because of increased health risks for people over 65 and those with heart and lung problems.

“Heat can result in serious health outcomes across the population, especially for older adults or those with pre-existing health conditions,” Dr. Agostinho Sousa, head of the UKHSA, said in a statement. “It is therefore important to check on friends, family and neighbors who are more vulnerable and to take sensible precautions while enjoying the sun.”

Saturday is expected to be the hottest day of the heat wave, with temperatures falling slightly on Sunday and dropping back into the more normal temperatures next week, the Met Office said. The heat alert is currently scheduled to remain in effect until Monday morning.

Unusually, temperatures in London this week have been higher than in many parts of Western Europe. That’s because the high temperatures are not the result of hot air moving north from the Iberian Peninsula or North Africa as is often the case, the Met Office said.

Instead, this weather system originated in air high over the Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland. As it approaches the UK, it descends toward ground level, causing it to warm rapidly, Chief Meteorologist Matthew Lenhert said.

That said, it has been plenty hot in Europe too. Aviation enthusiasts attending the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, north of Paris, this week sought the shade of a Boeing 777’s wing, cooling off as temperatures hovered in the low 30s C (mid-80s F.)

Met Office scientists this week published research showing that climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme high temperatures in the UK The chance of temperatures exceeding 40 C (104 F) is now more than 20 times higher than it was in the 1960s, the researchers said.


In Java, Indonesian conservationist leads efforts to protect endangered silvery gibbons

Updated 20 June 2025
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In Java, Indonesian conservationist leads efforts to protect endangered silvery gibbons

  • Rahayu Oktaviani won the 2025 Whitley Award, which recognizes grassroots conservation leaders
  • There are fewer than 2,500 Javan gibbons in the wild, half of which live at a national park in West Java

JAKARTA: It was deep in the heart of an Indonesian rainforest in West Java that Rahayu Oktaviani, known as Ayu, first heard the “song” of the Javan gibbon. 

She had her first encounter in 2008 while visiting the Mount Halimun Salak National Park for an undergraduate research project that required her to obtain a voice sample of the primate. 

After waiting patiently for two weeks, coming in and out of the forest, she finally heard a Javan gibbon make its distinctive call. 

She recalled how the sound she described as melodic and haunting had created a hush, as it echoed throughout the forest. 

“It’s like the most beautiful song that I ever heard in my life. It’s so amazing,” Ayu told Arab News. 

“They are non-human primates, but they can have like this beautiful song that can make all of … the creatures in the forest just keep silent.” 

In the 17 years since, Ayu has dedicated her life to protecting the endangered animals, which are also known as “silvery gibbon,” or “owa jawa” locally.

This undated photo shows a Javan gibbon sitting on a tree branch in West Java, Indonesia. (Whitley Awards) 

A vast archipelago stretching across the equator, Indonesia is a top global biodiversity hotspot and home to over 60 species of primates, about 38 of which are endemic to the country. 

“Maybe a lot of people know about the orangutan, about the rhino, about the tiger, but how about the overlooked species, just like, for example, the Javan gibbon? Not so many people know about them,” Ayu said.  

Fewer than 2,500 Javan gibbons remain in the wild today, according to an estimate by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. About half of them live in the 87,000-hectare Mount Halimun Salak National Park, where Ayu and her team have laid the building blocks for grassroots conservation of the endangered species. 

The gibbons rely on a continuous canopy for movement and foraging, making them particularly vulnerable to forest fragmentation and habitat degradation. As around 55 percent of Indonesia’s 270 million population lives in Java, the survival of the endemic species found only in the island’s forests is threatened by deforestation and illegal animal trafficking. 

“With the situation in Java, where only like 10 percent of the natural forests are remaining, it means the forest itself should be intact. The forest itself still needs to be there not only for the Javan gibbons, but also for the other species that need this habitat for their lives,” Ayu said. 

In 2020, she co-founded the conservation nongovernmental organization Kiara to expand efforts to save the Javan gibbon, believing that a key aspect in protecting the species was to engage the local community. 

When she started out as a primatologist, spending much time in the forest to study the gibbons, Ayu did not realize that she was neglecting the very people who lived alongside the primates. 

She recalled a question a villager posed at the time, a woman named Yanti, who was curious as to why Ayu always went to the forest but rarely stopped by the village. 

“That’s a really casual and simple question, but it kept me thinking about what I’ve been doing so far. Is there something that I’ve been missing?” Ayu said. 

Yanti’s query eventually led her to realize that she needed to do more with the community. 

“We want to build together with the communities, where actually the gibbon can be something that they can be proud of,” she said. “Community engagement is 100 percent the core for conservation because without community, we cannot do everything.” 

Ayu has employed people from Citalahab, a small village enclave located within the national park where locals make a living working in tea plantations or as rice farmers. Eight of them now work in the field alongside Ayu and her team to monitor the gibbons in the wild. 

With Kiara, she also established the Ambu Halimun initiative, which involves 15 local women between the ages of 17 and 50 in ecoprinting workshops and financial literacy training. 

In April, Ayu won the prestigious Whitley Award, which recognizes achievements in grassroots conservation, to advance her work in protecting the Javan gibbons. 

With 50,000 British pounds ($67,000) from the award, Ayu plans to scale up her programs with Kiara to mitigate threats from human activities and to protect the gibbons’ habitat. 

This includes developing a data management system to enhance park-wide conservation efforts, training the park rangers in biodiversity monitoring techniques, and guiding conservation strategies. 

The 38-year-old, whose role models are “the Trimates,” primatologists Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas, has faith that humans can live in coexistence with wildlife. 

“Actually, if we put aside our ego, we are part of the ecosystem itself. We are not separated from the ecosystems, so it means we have to have more balance with nature,” she said. “And to do that, we also have to respect what else (is) actually living together with us in these ecosystems.” 

Ayu said the Whitley Award served as good momentum to raise awareness about the species she loves dearly, the Javan gibbons. 

“I believe not so many people are aware of the existence of the Javan gibbon, so it’s the right momentum to share the love for the Javan gibbon and make people care about it,” she said. “Because how can you care about the species if you know nothing about them?”

With the award and the coverage that it garnered internationally, Ayu is also hopeful about inspiring a new generation of conservationists from Indonesia. 

“I think women also play a good part to be conservationists in the future … It’s also about … regeneration: the importance of nurturing the new generation of conservationists and primatologists from Indonesia, especially because we need more and more people who work in this field.” 


UK working with Israel to arrange charter flights out of Tel Aviv, Lammy says

Updated 20 June 2025
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UK working with Israel to arrange charter flights out of Tel Aviv, Lammy says

LONDON: Britain is working with Israeli authorities to arrange charter flights for British nationals from Tel Aviv when the airport reopens, foreign minister David Lammy said on Friday.
“As part of our efforts to support British nationals in the Middle East, the government is working with the Israeli authorities to provide charter flights from Tel Aviv airport when airspace reopens,” Lammy said in a statement.
Israel’s main international gateway, Ben Gurion Airport, closed last week due to Israel and Iran’s spiralling air war.
On Monday, the British government advised its citizens in Israel to register their presence with British authorities, saying it was monitoring the situation and considering options for assistance.
It said it had increased its logistical support for citizens who have turned to overland routes into Jordan and Egypt.


Taiwan to hold recall election for lawmakers that could reshape parliament

Updated 20 June 2025
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Taiwan to hold recall election for lawmakers that could reshape parliament

TAIPEI: Taiwan will hold a recall vote for around one quarter of parliament’s lawmakers — all from the main opposition party — next month, the election commission said on Friday, a move which could see the ruling party take back control of the legislature.
While Lai Ching-te won the presidency last year, his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its parliamentary majority, leaving the Kuomintang (KMT) and the much smaller Taiwan People’s Party with the most seats.
The KMT and the TPP have passed a series of measures, including swingeing budget cuts, angering the DPP, though the campaigns to gather enough signatures for the recalls were led by civic groups.
The opposition has 62 of parliament’s 113 seats and the DPP holds the remaining 51. The recall votes for 24 KMT lawmakers will take place on July 26, the election commission said.
The DPP has given full support for the recalls, releasing a video this week calling on people to vote yes and “oppose the communists” — a direct reference to China and what the party says is the opposition’s dangerous cosying up to Beijing.
The KMT has vowed to fight what it calls a “malicious recall” that comes so soon after the last parliamentary election in January 2024.
“The KMT calls on the people of Taiwan to oppose the green communists and fight against dictatorship, and vote ‘no’,” the party said in a statement after the recall vote was announced, referring to the DPP’s party colors.
The KMT says its engagement with China, which views separately-governed Taiwan as its own territory, is needed to keep channels of communication open and reduce tensions.
China has rejected multiple offers of talks from Lai, branding him a “separatist,” and has increased military pressure against the island.
Recall campaigns against DPP lawmakers failed to gather enough valid signatures.
For the recalls to be successful, the number of votes approving the measure must be more than those opposing it, and also exceed one-quarter of the number of registered voters in the constituency, so turnout will be important.
If the recall votes are successful, there will be by-elections later this year to select new lawmakers.
Taiwan’s next parliamentary and presidential elections are not scheduled until early 2028.