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One in 4 Americans, including nearly half of Asian Americans, in recent weeks have seen someone blame Asian people for the coronavirus epidemic, a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds. The nationwide survey was taken Thursday and Friday in the wake of last week's mass shooting in Georgia that killed eight people, six of them women of Asian descent. Reports across the country of physical assaults and verbal abuse against Asian Americans have jumped during the yearlong pandemic. (Page and Elbeshbishi, 3/21)

President Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to “swiftly pass” hate crime legislation to address the rise in discrimination and violence against Asian Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act aims to increase Justice Department oversight of coronavirus-related hate crimes, provide support for state and local law enforcement agencies, and make hate crime information more accessible to Asian American communities. (Miao, 3/19)

Demonstrations unfolded across the country Saturday as activists and officials linked the massacre in Atlanta to a surge in violence against Asian Americans amid the covid-19 pandemic. ... Meanwhile, a growing chorus of advocates has called for a renewed federal effort to fight gun violence, arguing that, amid rising racism, lax gun laws make it too easy for someone to act on their hate. (Kaplan, Bella, Bellware and Wang, 3/20)

Pope Francis on Sunday denounced racism, likening it to a virus that lurks in waiting and only to emerge and show that “our supposed social progress is not as real or definitive” as people think. Francis tweeted on racism on the date that the United Nations marks as International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The pope likened racism to a “a virus that quickly mutates and, instead of disappearing, goes into hiding, and lurks in waiting.” (3/21)

The man accused of killing six Asian women told police that he attacked the Georgia massage businesses because they contributed to his "sex addiction." The spas, police said, were a source of "temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate." Although authorities have not said whether sex work occurred at the businesses, the spas he targeted were reported sites of law enforcement prostitution stings and reviewed online as places where sex work occurred. (Bowman, 3/21)

Organizers of the campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom have repeatedly called the coronavirus a “Chinese” virus over the past year, echoing rhetoric that Asian American leaders say has fueled racist attitudes and violence. On its website, the recall campaign referred to the virus as the “Communist Chinese Party (CCP) Virus,” and some political operatives who have worked on the effort have used similar language. (Gardiner, 3/21)

Maria Tran had felt the sting of anti-Asian racism before, including the time “an older white gentleman on the street told me to go back to Vietnam” and the many references to “the China virus” by former President Trump. But the pain and outrage caused by last week’s killing of eight people in Georgia — including six women of Asian descent — were too much for her to bear alone. On Sunday, she joined scores of others at a vigil and rally at Village Green Park in Garden Grove to protest racially driven hate and violence. The Orange County demonstration was one of several held across California throughout the weekend. (Christensen, 3/21)