In Atlanta, there’s only one place you can get late night sushi on a Thursday: Trap Sushi. Fusing Atlanta and Japanese pop culture, Trap Sushi builds community around food, music, anime, and cosplay. Founders speak on the due diligence it takes to appreciate (and not appropriate) culture. Artist Tolden Williams, aka Troop Brand, grew up in Mississippi loving Dragon Ball Z. Stephanie Lindo, an environmental scientist, first learned about manga and anime from her Vietnamese best friends. When Tolden discovered Stephanie art online, their shared love for Japanese culture fueled a project that has now become centerstage of Atlanta’s growing cosplay community. Many Black cosplayers are on the rise–and so is racism. This exists in anime communities too, where being Black means you cannot play a certain character. Trap Sushi has become the place where people of all backgrounds feel safe and accepted to tap into cosplay, anime, and community in general.

Rishi Sunak, the UK’s new Prime Minister, is Hindu, of Indian descent, and the first PM of color. He is also one of the richest men in Britain, and his family’s wealth is almost twice that of the monarchy. While many Hindus celebrate the win, others are questioning if Sunak is right to lead. When Sunak was the Chancellor of the Exchequer - equivalent of the finance minister - he raised taxes around the same time his family was accused of tax evasion. The former banker and husband of a tech heiress, is being called to question by critics, like Labour Party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner, MP Zahra Sultana and writer Basit Mahmood. Calls for a general election are mounting from both the left and the right. Still others are calling this moment historical for minority representation. Meanwhile in India, many are celebrating his victory as a “gift of Diwali”.

Anna May Wong was the first Asian American star in Hollywood, and will break barriers again as the first to grace the quarter coin. After a 40-year-long career filled with xenophobia, "yellowface", and being typecast as the sex worker, Anna is finally getting well-deserved recognition in American history. Born Wong Liu Tsong in LA in 1905 to an immigrant family with a laundry business, Anna chased film sets until she finally landed her first role at 17 years old. As an Asian actress during this time, she faced constant challenges including laws that banned her from portraying interracial romance on screen or being pigeon holed into villain roles. She even lost a lead role in a story about Chinese farms to a white actor. Anna eventually left Hollywood but persevered in the business–and advocated for better representation. On Monday, she will be recognized as a pioneer as her image is memorialized on the quarter.

In 2020, the number of women buying boxing gloves doubled. While more girls are participating in boxing studios more than ever, it’s still rare for women to be coaches. Meet Summer Jiao, the Muay Thai instructor whose ex-boyfriend’s fat shaming catalyzed her journey to boxing. Muay Thai is known to be brutal, fierce, and violent, especially when you watch athletes in merciless matches. But the practice is about decisiveness, speed, persistence–and is a great test for observing and collecting your thoughts. After practicing for 8 years, 27-year-old instructor Summer has devoted her life to boxing and says it gave her reason for existence. Students like Yan Bao, who is also a mother, agrees that Muay Thai isn’t about violence as much as it is about peace. Being strong in your body, able to kick properly, and run fast is about safety and calming your mind–especially as a girl or woman out there in the world.

90% of Koreans use Kakao apps daily. So when Kakao experienced an outage last weekend, the country went into chaos. Everyday interactions like ordering coffee or getting a cab were disrupted, and the government is now opening an investigation on their monopoly on the market. The outage was caused by a fire at a data center that affected over 30,000 servers, and services are still not fully recovered. Meanwhile, Naver - a competing IT giant that also shared the data center - was able to quickly restore its services. Now, experts question if Kakao is investing enough in data backup and emergency prep, while national security concerns rise in case of similar blackouts. On Monday, Kakao Corp shares plunged more than 9%, to their lowest since May 2020. 47 million people can’t live without Kakao–are you one of them?

South Asia ranks highest globally for intimate partner violence, and South Asian women are also far more likely to underreport domestic violence cases than other communities. These abuse patterns result in honor killings, and are perpetuated by a culture of silence and shame. 40% of South Asian women have reported intimate partner violence in their current relationships. And alongside disempowering legal, cultural, familial structures, Bollywood is also responsible for enabling abuse. From husbands slapping their wives to “keep them in line” to romanticizing assault, stalking, and coercion, Indian cinema have written abusers as heroes in many storylines. Most recently, Sania Khan’s life was minimized to a headline, when she spoke up about the stigma of divorce and was then killed by her ex-husband. How can we protect South Asian women and eradicate domestic violence? It begins with dismantling cultural norms that prioritize what society says about women’s mental and physical well-being.