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The Asian Pacific American Cultural Center will celebrate its 20th anniversary this April with the new events that showcase the center’s mark on campus. APACC is launching a magazine, hosting a gala, ...

The row over whether the pandemic started with a lab leak is growing. But the most important question is what we do now
We may never know for certain how a disease that brought the world to a standstill and has killed almost 7 million people emerged. While many experts believe that arose through human contact with infected animals, most likely via a wet market in Wuhan, China, a significant number believe it probably escaped from the city’s Institute of Virology. Others . But politics has turbocharged a scientific question. Donald Trump hyped the lab leak theory ; yet some scientists fear that, in the haste to challenge xenophobic buck-passing that was fuelling anti-Asian hate crime, others may have been too quick to dismiss entirely a genuine possibility.
The simmering, rancorous debate began heating up again late last month when it emerged that the US Department of Energy , though with “low confidence”, that a lab escape was probably to blame. The FBI agrees, while four other US agencies blame natural spillover and two – including the CIA – . Then, a new analysis of gene sequences taken from swabs from the market showed that some Covid-positive samples were , bolstering the case that it began through infected animals sold at the site. As the row gathers pace, Joe Biden has on the pandemic’s origins.
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Doubts about both China and the United States are driving an arms race in the Indo-Pacific with echoes of World War II and new levels of risk.

The decision by Honduras is also a setback in Washington’s efforts to use its influence in Central America to help prevent China from isolating Taiwan.

ByteDance employees in China have accessed TikTok user information to surveil American journalists who were covering the company in 2022, according to Forbes. Chinese law permits the government to ...

Han Dong’s departure escalates row over allegations that Beijing meddled in Canada’s elections as friction between countries grows
The abrupt resignation of a Canadian lawmaker over allegations he secretly met with a Chinese diplomat has escalated a row over allegations that Beijing meddled in Canadian elections – and highlighted the complex and often fraught relationship between the two countries.
Han Dong, a member of the governing Liberal party, was reported to have met with Han Tao, China’s consul general in February 2021, to suggest that Chinese authorities delay freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadians who were detained in China at the time.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was blasted for opposing a TikTok ban given Chinese parent company ByteDance's six figure donation to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Foundation.

Min isn’t a shut-in. She’s just a Korean American from central Pennsylvania. Ever since the US government shot down a Chinese spy balloon last month, Min has withdrawn from her normal routine ...

Fears for data security lie behind recent government bans on the Chinese-owned app, but zombie scrolling has health dangers too
As of this moment, government to run TikTok on their government-issued phones. The countries include the US, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, the UK, New Zealand, Norway, France, the Netherlands and Poland. In addition, European Commission and European parliament staff were required to delete the app. This raises two questions.
First, why were politicians and senior officials in democracies scrolling like zombies through dance crazes, daft pet videos, and things you can do with smudged lipstick?

Ten samples from Britain were suspected of containing cheap sugar syrup
Adulteration of honey with cheap sugar syrup has been exposed in a new investigation by the European Commission, which found 46% of sampled products were suspected to be fraudulent. Ten honey samples from the UK all failed the tests. They may have been blended or packaged in Britain, but the honey probably originated overseas.
This is not the first time have suggested that UK shoppers may be being cheated on their honey, though supermarkets say they regularly test honey and audit supply lines.

America’s record at keeping global order is deeply flawed, but the only winners from its drift towards isolationism will be Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin
American global leadership took a serious kicking last week. Politicians and pundits on both sides of the Atlantic queued up to condemn George W Bush’s and Tony Blair’s of Iraq 20 years ago this month. At the same time, Congress moved to repeal the war powers act that enables a US president to launch military interventions abroad.
In Moscow, meanwhile, Xi Jinping, stringing along his Russian puppet, Vladimir Putin, proposed a to replace the post-1945 US-led model. China’s de facto dictator is generously offering to “stand guard” over the planet. In Xi’s brave new world, subservience and surveillance replace shock and awe. Democracy takes a back seat.