The University of California Los Angeles is launching a $3 million “Initiative to Study Hate,” a three-year endeavor by scholars across over 20 disciplines to understand and reduce hate in its various forms. 

Researchers will meet monthly to discuss their findings and work with NGO leaders, policymakers and other key players to transform theory into application across education, healthcare and public policy. One of the first issues the initiative will examine is the Atlanta spa shootings and its impact on the mental health of Asian Americans, with an emphasis on Asian women.  

 

• Ken Sim has become the first Chinese mayor of Vancouver, Canada, defeating incumbent Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart on Oct. 15. 

• Asian Americans are one of Texas’ fastest-growing demographics, but a new report finds that 80% of the community feel they “are not well represented in government. ”

• Los Angeles' Asian American political leaders are warning other political candidates not to use their communities to incite more racial tensions following the City Hall tape leak controversy.

• Authorities in Singapore shortened Vogue’s publishing permit and warned them against having nudity and promoting “non-traditional families. ”

• Kakao Corp, which operates the widely-used communications app KakaoTalk, suffered a fire over the weekend in one of its data centers, impacting over 40 million users.

• BTS held their free “Yet To Come” concert in Busan over the weekend as part of their efforts for the city to host the 2030 World Expo. 

• The inaugural KAMP LA K-pop festival lost half of its headlining artists the day before the event started due to visa issues, with many dubbing it “KAMPFYRE” and comparing it to the disastrous 2017 Fyre festival.

• Letters of fallen Japanese soldiers from WWII have been found in the U.S. 

• The voice actor for the character of Bayonetta is calling for a boycott of the new game of the same name because she was only offered $4,000 to reprise her role.   

• A new dashi speciality store in New York, Dashi Okume, opened on Friday. 

• Waiters at an Oakland ramen restaurant dressed like Power Rangers fended off a man choking a woman.
   
• Many in China are now paying for the services of a “sleeping assistant” to help talk them to sleep.