Good morning.
Law enforcement agencies are under pressure to ramp up efforts to combat a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes, with particular criticism centring on poor reporting of the incidents. The issue came under new scrutiny following a spate of shootings in massage parlours Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday which left six women of Asian descent dead.
Police forces aren’t obliged to record hate crimes, meaning that data on the subject is patchy. In the most recent FBI data, for 2019, almost 90% of law enforcement organisations involved in the hate crime study recorded no incidents at all – which civil rights groups say is simply unbelievable.
The suspect behind the attacks, in which eight people in total were killed, was charged with eight counts of murder on Wednesday. Officials said he may have been planning further attacks but that it was too early to determine whether the attacks had been racially motivated. Here is what we know so far.
Racist extremists pose the deadliest terror threat to the US, according to an unclassified intelligence report. The report also warned that the threats could grow this year. Earlier this month, the FBI director, Christopher Wray, said the threat from domestic violent extremism was “metastasizing”.
A Georgia police officer was criticised for saying the alleged shooter was “having a really bad day”, with many accusing him of minimising brutal killings. The officer in question had reportedly shared images of T-shirts with racist slogans about China and the coronavirus pandemic on Facebook.
Ever wondered what it sounds like to drive on Mars?
Nasa’s newest Mars rover, named Perseverance, has sent back the first-ever sounds of driving on the red planet – and it is not quite as ethereal as you would expect. The video shows an uncomfortable clanking and grinding, with the Nasa engineer Dave Gruel saying: “If I heard these sounds driving my car, I’d pull over and call for a tow.”
While Gruel assured people that given given the surroundings “it makes perfect sense” that there is one unexpectedly high scratching sound, which Nasa is still trying to figure out.
The oil industry knew of pollution risks for 50 years – and lobbied the government anyway
The oil industry has been aware for 50 years that pollution from the burning of fossil fuels posed serious risks to human health but continued to aggressively lobby against clean air regulations for decades, a Guardian investigation has revealed.
According to documents, oil firms even suspected that children of their own workers could be experiencing birth defects but pushed on to permit pollution anyway.
Nearly one in five global deaths each year is due to particulate pollution, according to a landmark study by a team of US and UK researchers last month. This is a greater death toll than that caused by HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
How will Covid impact the global economy, and who will bear the brunt?
The UN has said the poorest and most vulnerable countries will be most impacted by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, with the global economy predicted to suffer losses of $10tn by the end of the year.
Underlying global problems including inequality, indebtedness and a lack of investment have been exacerbated by the crisis, the body said. However, it did revise its economic predictions upwards slightly, forecasting that the global economy would expand by 4.7% this year, up from the 4.3% it predicted six months ago.
The US should learn from the EU’s mistakes about the risks of easing coronavirus restrictions too quickly, leading health experts have said. Following relaxation, there has been sharp rise in new infections and hospitalisations in parts of Europe.
China will only allow visitors who have had a Chinese vaccine, accepting no foreign vaccines even if they have been approved by the World Health Organization. This has raised questions about the motivation behind the rules, and means countries that don’t have access to the Sinovac vaccine won’t be able to visit for now.
In other news…
Katherine Tai becomes first woman of colour to be US trade representative on Wednesday. Tai also became the first Asian American to serve as trade representative for the US, after she was confirmed in a rare unanimous vote by the Senate.
Texas Republicans are attempting to limit opportunities for voting, despite already being one of the hardest states to vote in in the US. The measures would include prohibiting drive-thru voting and cutting early voting hours.
Joe Biden has defended the decision not to punish Saudi Arabia’s crown prince for his alleged role in the murder of the US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Biden claimed that acting against the Mohammed bin Salman would have been unprecedented as the US has never punished heads of state in allied countries – but the US doesn’t have a binding treaty with Saudi Arabia and it isn’t a major ally.
Stat of the day: white supremacist propaganda nearly doubled in 2020, with 14 cases reported daily
The distribution of white supremacist propaganda nearly doubled across the US in 2020, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The body said it had recorded 5,125 incidents of racist, antisemitic and other hateful messages, averaging about 14 cases a day. This compared with 2,724 in 2019.
Don’t miss this: a peek inside the homes of New York’s larger-than-life residents
This joyful picture gallery takes us inside the homes of some of New York’s most colourful characters. From muralled walls to entire rooms of glitter, inject a bit of fabulous into your morning.
Last thing: could feeding cows seaweed help solve the climate crisis?
Researchers putting small quantities of seaweed into cattle feed over five months have found that the animals released 82% less methane, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. Agriculture makes up about 10% of emissions in the US, much of it from cows that belch and fart out methane, leading scientists to believe that this could be a long-term solution to a key polluting problem.
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