AUGUST 12, 2022

Hello, everyone!

Albuquerque police have arrested and charged Muhammad Syed for the recent murder of two Muslim men. He remains a suspect in two other murders that gained national attention last week.

Syed was stopped by police on Monday who found a handgun with a spent bullet casing that are a presumptive match for the evidence found near Naeem Hussein’s body. After police arrested Syed on Wednesday and ran a ballistics test, information about Syed’s past encounters with the police erupted from various arguments with his family that occasionally involved violence. He and his family immigrated from Afghanistan six years ago.

Police believe that Syed is responsible for the murder of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old urban planner, and the July 26 murder of a cafe worker, Aftab Hussein. Currently, New Mexico police are investigating Syed’s involvement in the November 2021 killing of Mohammad Ahmadi, 62, and of 25-year-old Naeem Hussain last Friday.

Spotlight 💡

While this is probably not the first time you’ve read something about record-breaker Shohei Ohtani, it also won’t be the last.

After winning his tenth game on Tuesday, Ohtani is now the first player to have double-digit home runs as a batter and wins as a pitcher in a single Major League Baseball season since legendary player Babe Ruth in 1918.

Ohtani’s accomplishments continue to blow his managers away, with ESPN Stats and Info recording that Ohtani became the first American League pitcher to homer and throw six scoreless innings in the same game since Dave McNally 50 years ago.

Race in America 🌎

Filipino American NBA player, Jalen Green shared in a “Fast Talk” segment on Tuesday that his Asian mother, Bree Puruganan, is his greatest motivation.

When asked to elaborate, Green explained that his mother’s hard work in taking care of him and his sister inspires him too. In another question that asked Green to choose between adobo or lumpia, he had to go with adobo. 

A grand jury in Mississippi found insufficient evidence to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham for kidnapping and manslaughter after her false accusations of sexual advances led to her husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, killing 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955.

Despite listening to seven hours of evidence and testimony, the jury returned a “‘no bill’ to the charges of both kidnapping and manslaughter,” even as the nation reckons with new details that continue to inform the insidious history of the case. For more than two decades, prosecutors attempted many legal avenues to get justice for Till and his family, to no avail.

Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., cousin and best friend to Emmett Till, expressed his disappointment at the news, which he received as “unfortunate, but predictable,” describing the racist legal systems that have and continue to work against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in this nation today. These examples are numerous and resemble the many cases present in the Asian community as well.

In Other Asian News 🗞

Famed Filipino athlete Lydia de Vega died this week at age 57 due to continued complications with stage four breast cancer and surgery.

De Vega was considered Asia’s fastest woman in the 1980s. She was a nine-time gold medalist in the Southeast Asian Games, two Olympic appearances and won gold twice in the Asian Games during her lifetime.

 Even in the post-colonial world, labor trafficking and exploitation continue to run rampant. 

Similar to other examples worldwide, scam rings in Cambodia rope in workers through many ways including fraudulent online ad recruitment. These workers are then coerced, with violence and/or incurring unreasonable debts, to operate online scams to get other users online to spend their money on nonexistent services and products.

These organizations usually, with or without labor contracts, have shady operations that extort desperate workers. Jake Sims, Cambodia director of the human rights NGO International Justice Mission (IJM) explains that trafficking and subsequent enslavement is not uncommon, with scam rings spread throughout the country in casinos, hotels, resorts, residential developments and office complexes. Oftentimes these compounds will have barbed wire and bars on windows to prevent workers from leaving and will physically torture and threaten them as well.

Sims and his team have been working on rescuing dozens of foreign nationals that are trapped in these conditions including people from China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and more. 

Film and TV 📺

Writer and producer Steven J. Kung, whose previous work includes “Dear White People,” is developing a new comedy series on Starz called “Plan A.” 

The plot will center around LA-based Asian Americans who strive for the apex of the American Dream, a good job and a happy love life, all while trying to balance cultural expectations from themselves, their family and friends and society.  “I’ve always wanted to watch a show about people who look like me, just walking around, living their lives, and taking up space,” Kung, who is Taiwanese said.
 

...

Following their ban of “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Lightyear,” the Malaysian government will continue to ban films with LGBTQ+ representation or elements.

Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Zahidi Zainul Abidin said, “Recently there was a film that did not pass censorship, that is the new “Thor” film. The movie touched on LGBT but we see right now there are many films with LGBT elements that slip past the censorship.” In a response to a question in Parliament, he said, “I am frustrated because the outside world was the one promoting LGBT.”

What else is on our minds? 🧠
 

• Researchers have decoded metal making recipes from the ancient Chinese text called the Kaogong ji, dating back to 300 B.C.

• Robot arms and artificial intelligence will now replace shelf stockers in around 300 convenience stores in Japan. 

• A breakdown of how a staple ingredient, Vietnamese fish sauce, is made. 

• Former Le Sserafim member Kim Garam, whose contract was terminated last month due to bullying allegations, has issued a new statement claiming her innocence and denying the allegations. 

• A new Kirby game, “Kirby’s Dream Buffet,” will drop in less than a week for the Nintendo Switch console. 

• The “Game of Thrones” prequel, “House of the Dragon,” is arriving soon and will star Japanese British actor and dancer, Sonoya Mizuno.