| A bill aimed at fighting AAPI hate will test the Senate's ability to unify around a common cause; India's Covid-19 surge complicates its vaccine-exporting efforts. Tonight's Sentences was written by Greg Svirnovskiy. | | | | | | | The Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act is a test for the Senate | | | | | Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images | | - This week, the Senate will debate the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act, a bill aimed at expediting the Justice Department's review of anti-Asian hate crimes and raising awareness about hate crime reporting in local communities. Introduced in the Senate by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), the bill will serve as an important test of the deeply divided body's capacity to unite and pass bills to protect marginalized communities. [Jeanine Santucci / USA Today]
- This bill comes to the fore as racist attacks against the AAPI community have increased amid the coronavirus pandemic and former President Trump's use of racist language around it. The reporting forum Stop AAPI Hate found nearly 3,800 incidents of anti-Asian hate were reported from March 2020 to February 2021; 68% of those incidents were reported by women. [NBC News / Kimmy Yam]
- President Joe Biden has expressed support for the bill, calling attention in late March to an "ongoing crisis of gender-based and anti-Asian violence." He made that comment while visiting Atlanta in late March, after a gunman killed eight people, including six Asian women, at three Atlanta-area spas. [Reuters]
- The bill is expected to receive bipartisan support. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said she hopes Republicans will join her in voting for its advance. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he is aiming to "get on the bill in a normal way, have some amendments and move to final passage." [WBEZ Chicago / Barbara Sprunt]
- Democrats in Congress, led by Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), last week introduced the No Hate Act, a bill that if passed, would provide states with resources necessary to address anti-Asian hate, including improving their hate crime reporting systems. Chu's bill is designed to act in tandem with the Hate Crimes Act. [USA Today / Savannah Behrmann]
| | | A renewed Covid wave has India turning inward | | - A new wave of Covid-19 is slamming India, with cases there at their highest point since the beginning of the pandemic. The "world's pharmacy" has now overtaken Brazil to become the second-worst-hit country in the world, behind only the United States. [TRT World]
- Ten states — including Maharashtra, home to Mumbai, one of India's primary economic and population centers — recorded a whopping 83% of India's 168,000 new cases Monday. [CNBC / Saheli Roy Choudhury]
- For the next 15 days, Mumbai residents will live under strict restrictions, including closures of most businesses, industries, and public places. Experts worry the new restrictions could stymie any of the economic recoveries made since India's 2020 lockdown. [AP / Rafiq Maqbool and Aniruddha Ghosal]
- Though India produces more vaccines than any other country and anyone above the age of 45 is eligible to be vaccinated, sites are turning people away. Critics are blaming Modi's government for exporting over 64 million vaccines while inoculating only a tiny portion of the domestic population. Stock in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Punjab in particular is stretched. [Al Jazeera / Bilal Kuchay]
- Two weeks ago, India began holding back all 2.4 million doses of vaccine that the country's private Serum Institute produced every day, despite half of those vaccines being earmarked for the world's 92 lowest-income countries. Covax, the program set up to supply vaccine doses to low-income nations, has had to inform would-be recipients that nearly 100 million doses expected through April will be delayed. [NYT / Jeffrey Gettleman, Emily Schmall, and Mujib Mashal]
| | | | | | | The former police officer who fatally shot Daunte Wright at a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, was arrested today and charged with second-degree manslaughter. | | | [NBC News / Wilson Wong and Deon J. Hampton] - On Tuesday, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani announced the country would increase its uranium enrichment to 60% in response to Israel's attack on the Natanz nuclear facility. This is still some way off from the 90% grade needed to produce nuclear weapons, but it's closer than the Iranians have ever been. [AP / Jon Gambrell]
- Japan is facing major challenges just 100 days out from the Tokyo Olympics, which have already been pushed back a year due to Covid-19. The recent global surge of Covid-19, which has been felt domestically in the city of Osaka, is throwing qualifying events into question and forcing organizers of the games to take even more precautions. [Al Jazeera]
- Former NFL player and Bachelor star Colton Underwood came out as gay on Good Morning America Wednesday. "And I came to terms with that earlier this year and have been processing it," Underwood told GMA's Robin Roberts. "And the next step in all of this was sort of letting people know." [GMA]
- Bernie Madoff, who organized the largest Ponzi scheme in US history, died this morning in prison, at the age of 82. [CNBC / Marty Steinberg and Scott Cohn]
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