Asian Americans now make up nearly 10% of the Houston metropolitan area, a demographic shift researchers say has quietly reshaped one of the nation’s largest and most diverse cities, according to a study recently released by Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research. The Asian American Community Study documents how the population grew from roughly 1.8% in 1980 to more than 655,000 residents today across Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Brazoria counties. Researchers describe the change as one of the most consequential demographic transformations in the region’s recent history.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi concluded a two-day bilateral summit in Nara on Jan. 14 with a closing moment few observers would have predicted. The two leaders, wearing matching blue uniforms, sat behind drum kits and performed “Golden” from Netflix’s “K-Pop Demon Hunters” and BTS’s “Dynamite.” The performance followed agreements on DNA testing for victims of the 1942 Chosei coalmine disaster, cooperation against scam crimes and the launch of economic security talks.

The FBI renewed its call last week for the extradition of Apollo Quiboloy, a Philippine religious leader charged in US court with sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion. Quiboloy founded the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church and is accused by federal prosecutors of using his authority to recruit and exploit female followers for sex. The appeal follows his September 2024 arrest in the Philippines, where he remains under local custody as extradition issues remain unresolved.

Veteran judge Sanjay T. Tailor will be sworn in on Jan. 30 as the first Asian American justice in the history of the Illinois Supreme Court. He was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Mary Jane Theis and will serve through Dec. 4, 2028. Tailor joins the seven-member court after 23 years as a judge in Cook County and the Illinois Appellate Court.

A Cambodian refugee who came to the U.S. as a child died in a Philadelphia hospital after spending three days in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to federal officials. Parady La, 46, was detained outside his home in Upper Darby on Jan. 6 and hospitalized the following day after being found unresponsive in his cell. His death occurred as ICE faces heightened scrutiny over medical emergencies inside immigration detention facilities.

Border Patrol agents detained a U.S. passport holder based solely on his accent in Minneapolis last week, raising concerns about expanded racial profiling that threatens Asian American communities.

A San Francisco jury found Antoine Watson guilty of lesser charges in the 2021 death of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee, but cleared him of murder and elder abuse in a case that helped fuel the Stop Asian Hate movement.

Over 100,000 visas were canceled by the State Department throughout 2025, setting an unprecedented record with more than double the 40,000 revocations from the previous year. Last week, we learned that the sweeping enforcement contributed to the nation’s first instance of negative net migration in at least five decades, and with significant implications for Asian American communities who make up substantial portions of student and skilled worker visa populations.

Celebrated South Korean director Park Chan-wook revealed that his film “No Other Choice” reflects how capitalism operates in South Korea, where competition intensifies once a worker loses his job. During a recent appearance on “The Daily Show,” Park said Korean society experiences capitalism “to the extreme,” a perspective that shaped his decision to tell the story through satire. Adapted from the 1997 novel “The Ax,” the film follows a longtime company employee who is fired and begins targeting other job seekers as he competes to reenter the workforce.

A new University of Toronto study suggests that stereotypes portraying Asian Americans as uniformly healthy have contributed to blind spots in U.S. mortality research. By analyzing years-of-life-lost among adults ages 25 to 84, researchers identified divergent trends across six Asian ethnic groups from 2000 to 2022. The study shows that aggregated reporting can conceal rising premature mortality in specific populations.