Meet Artemis II's Moon Mascot, Designed by 8-Year-Old Lucas Ye

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

8-year-old watches his plush toy rocket to the moon with Artemis II mission

A second-grader's plush toy design has rocketed to space alongside astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen on board the Artemis II moon mission launch. 8-year-old Lucas Ye of Mountain View, California designed a plush named "Rise," which wears an Earth cap with a brim highlighting the galaxy and rockets. The moon mascot serves as the Artemis II astronauts' zero gravity indicator, letting the crew know that they have reached weightlessness when it floats upward during their journey.

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Brother, sister charged after explosive device found outside Florida Air Force base

What in the hell. Two siblings have been charged after an explosive device was left outside a gate at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa this month. 20-year-old Alen Zheng and 27-year-old Ann Mary Zheng were charged last week in separate federal indictments. The sister is in custody, while the brother has fled. Alen Zheng is charged with attempting to damage government property, unlawfully making a destructive device and possessing an unregistered destructive device, while Ann Mary Zheng is charged with witness tampering and being an accessory after the fact in Alan Zheng's case.

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Lisa Lee on Translating an Emotion

"In writing toward what I didn't know, I rediscovered something I had largely forgotten. This is one of the benefits of writing into uncertainty. Sometimes you find out that you know more than you thought. For me, I think this embrace of uncertainty might be the answer to the question of how to write about a word that has no direct English equivalent. I believe firmly that nothing is untranslatable. It's just that sometimes a word might take a whole book to translate."

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'BTS: The Return' Director Bao Nguyen on Capturing an Intimate Look at the Band

BTS: The Return follows the band from Los Angeles to Seoul as they reunite after serving mandatory military service. When director Bao Nguyen set out to film the documentary and tell the story of the biggest band in the world, he knew he wouldn't have acces to the band 24/7. So he gave all seven members their own camcorders. And that's how Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook all officially earned "additional cinematography by" credits in the documentary.

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2026 SDAFF Spring Showcase

Attention, San Diego film fans! Our friends at Pacific Arts Movement invite you to the 15th SDAFF Spring Showcase, a curated 3-day celebration of Asian and Asian American cinema, featuring bold, moving, and unforgettable stories from around the world. From Aotearoa New Zealand to Iran, Japan to the Philippines, this year's lineup spans continents and perspectives bringing together stories that connect us across borders and generations. It's happening April 24-26 at UltraStar Cinemas Mission Valley. View the full schedule here.

Nurul Amin Shah Alam's Death Has Been Ruled a Homicide

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

Nurul Amin Shah Alam's Death Was a Homicide

On Wednesday, the Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office announced that it ruled the death of Nurul Amin Shah Alam, a Blind Rohingya refugee who was left on the freezing streets of Buffalo by Border Patrol officers, a homicide. Neither Shah Alam’s family, who had waited to meet him outside the facility where he was being held, nor his lawyers, who had been attempting to contact him, were notified of his location. Shah Alam spoke very little English.

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In the Birthright Citizenship Hearing, a Story of Asians Fighting for Rights

"In the decades before and after the Wong lawsuit, immigrants from China, Japan and India fought an immigration system that tried to keep people like them from entering the United States and from becoming American citizens. Taken together, the cases reflect a body of case law, beyond that of Wong Kim Ark, that has shaped the American immigration system for more than a hundred years."

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Birthright citizenship made me American. We can't lose it.

"Make no mistake: The birthright citizenship case before the Supreme Court is not some isolated policy debate. It's part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to put an end to multiracial democracy as we know it, by making it harder for communities of color to live, work, study and build a life in the United States."

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BEEF: Season 2 | Official Trailer

Netflix has debuted the first full trailer for the second installment of the Emmy-winning series BEEF. Trading the parking lot for the country club, the new season begins when a young couple witnesses an alarming fight between their boss and his wife -- setting off a high-stakes game of favors and coercion within an elitist world ruled by a Korean billionaire. Created and produced by Lee Sung Jin, season two stars Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac, Charles Melton, Cailee Spaeny and guest starring Youn Yuh-jung and Song Kang-ho. Beef season two premieres April 16.

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2026 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

Heads up! The 2026 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival has announced its official program lineup. If you're in Southern California, you have to check out this perennial celebration and showcase of film, culture and community. (Full disclosure: I am board member of the festival's presenting organization, Visual Communications.) From narratives to documentaries, shorts and special presentations, this is a chance to see exciting cinematic works from seasoned and up-and-coming AAPI filmmakers. LAAPFF runs April 29 to May 3 at venues around the Los Angeles area. See you there.

Ending Birthright Citizenship Would Disproportionately Affect Asian Americans

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

Lawful Asian immigrants would be disproportionately affected if birthright citizenship ends.

If President Trump succeeds in eliminating universal birthright citizenship, there could be 6.4 million U.S.-born children without legal status by 2050, according to a new study. In addition to affecting undocumented immigrants in the country, the authors say, that change would have a disproportionate effect on Asians who are in the country lawfully.

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ACLU’s Cecillia Wang Argues Trump Birthright Order Is Unconstitutional

Here's the audio of Cecillia Wang, National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, aguing in the Supreme Court that Trump’s executive order seeking to restrict birthright citizenship is unconstitutional.

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This Man’s Great-Grandfather Made Millions of People Americans

Norman Wong, the great-grandson of Wong Kim Ark, is a 76-year-old retired carpenter living outside San Francisco. His family has not only fought for the constitutional right to citizenship, they're painfully aware of what it looks like when that citizenship, once won, can be used against you.

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Padma Lakshmi: The Decision That Would Create a Permanent American Underclass

"If the Supreme Court doesn't block this executive order, it would create a mess of legal and logistical consequences. Confusion would replace certainty, opening the door to discrimination and a patchwork of rules governing noncitizens' access to our society. Hundreds of thousands of children born in the United States would be thrown into legal limbo every year. And the harm would compound. Ending birthright citizenship would create a permanent underclass of people born in the country but cut off from the rights that citizenship provides."

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Member of burglary ring targeting Asian business owners in Oregon pleads guilty

In Oregon, one of seven members of an alleged burglary ring that has targeted Asian American business owners across the state has pleaded guilty. 45-year-old Jhon Alexander Quintero was part of a group that burglarized Oregon and Washington residences starting in early October 2025. The group identified and watched potential victims, performed reconaissance on their homes, then ransacked the residences. Each of the victims were Asian Americans who owned businesses, and were working at the time of the burglaries.