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National

Myanmar security forces on Saturday killed more than 100 people, including children, during anti-coup protests, several news agencies reported. 

Why it matters: It's the bloodiest day of protests since the military last month overthrew the country's democratically elected government and comes as Myanmar’s military celebrates the annual Armed Forces Day holiday with a parade in the country's capital, Naypyidaw.

Context: Protesters have rallied in cities across the country for almost two months, demanding that democracy be restored.

The military junta now running the country has repeatedly used lethal force against civilians to maintain power.

What they're saying: During the armed forces parade, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the chief of the junta now in control of the country, claimed that the military would protect the people and strive for democracy, according to Reuters.

However, state television warned protesters on Friday night that they risked being shot “in the head and back” if they demonstrated during the national holiday.

"We are receiving reports of scores killed, incl. children, 100s injured across 40 locations, & mass arrests," the United Nations Human Rights office tweeted Saturday. "This violence is compounding the illegitimacy of the coup & the culpability of its leaders."

U.S. Ambassador Thomas Vajda said in a statement Saturday that "security forces are murdering unarmed civilians, including children, the very people they swore to protect."

"This bloodshed is horrifying. These are not the actions of a professional military or police force," he added. 

"Myanmar’s people have spoken clearly: they do not want to live under military rule. We call for an immediate end to the violence and the restoration of the democratically elected government."

The big picture: The deaths on Saturday increase the number of civilians reported killed by security forces since the coup to well over 400.

Thousands more civilians have been arrested, including a number of journalists.

Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout. 

Myanmar security forces kill more than 100 in deadliest day since coup

Protesters demonstrating against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 27.

Protesters demonstrating against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 27. Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Myanmar

World

China and Iran, both subject to U.S. sanctions, signed a 25-year cooperation agreement in Tehran on Saturday. 

Why it matters: China agreed to invest $400 billion in Iran's economy over that time period in exchange for a steady and heavily discounted supply of oil from the country, according to a draft of the agreement obtained by the New York Times.

What they're saying: “Relations between the two countries have now reached the level of strategic partnership and China seeks to comprehensively improve relations with Iran,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, according to Reuters.

“Our relations with Iran will not be affected by the current situation, but will be permanent and strategic."

Thought bubble, via Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian: Iran has become ever more dependent on China, which has offered it a rare economic lifeline amid heavy U.S. sanctions.

The big picture: The agreement may deepen China’s influence in the Middle East and undermine U.S. efforts to keep Iran isolated due the unresolved dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, per the NYT.

Iran's leaders indicated in January that they're willing to strike a nuclear agreement with the Biden administration. 

But Biden said last month that Iran will first have to stop enriching uranium above levels set by the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement before the countries can revive the deal.

The U.S. reentering the 2015 Iran nuclear deal remains unpopular with U.S. ally Israel.

Go deeper ... 43 senators to Biden: Use "full force" of diplomatic, economic tools to check Iran

Iran, China sign 25-year cooperation agreement

China agreed to invest $400 billion in Iran's economy in exchange for a steady supply of oil.

 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif posing for a photo in Tehran, Iran, on March 27.

 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif posing for a photo in Tehran, Iran, on March 27. Photo: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

China

Iran

The recent surge in anti-Asian racism and violence in the United States is the fruit of centuries of government policy. 

Why it matters: One thread throughout American history is a “racialized notion of who is an insider, who’s an outsider, who is American and who is an unassimilable foreigner,” says Karthick Ramakrishnan, a University of California Riverside professor and founder of AAPI Data. 

A brief timeline of anti-Asian racism in the U.S.: 

1790 — Naturalization Act: The act barred naturalization of any non-white person.

1854 — People vs. Hall: California's Supreme Court ruled an Asian person couldn't testify in court against a white person, setting the stage for anti-Asian violence to go unpunished. 

1871 — Chinese massacre in Los Angeles: Following the shooting of a white man killed in crossfire of rival Chinese gangs, hundreds of white and Hispanic people attacked L.A.’s  Chinese community on Oct. 24, 1871. Nearly 20 Chinese people were lynched or shot dead.

1875 — Page Act: Designed to prohibit women who had “lewd and immoral purposes” from entering the U.S., the Page Act was enforced mostly against Chinese women, the majority of whom were attempting to join Chinese men  working in the country.

1882 — Chinese Exclusion Act: The law banned immigration of Chinese laborers. It wasn’t repealed until 1943. 

1885 — Rock Springs massacre: White miners in Wyoming Territory attacked Chinese miners, killing 28 and wounding several others. 

1922-1923 — Supreme Court on citizenship: In separate cases in 1922 and 1923, the Supreme Court ruled that a Japanese-born man and an Indian-born man were not white and ineligible for naturalization. 

1924 — Johnson Reed Act: The law effectively blocked immigration from Asia and drastically cut the number of immigrants allowed to enter the U.S.

Japanese-Americans Interned at Santa Anita (Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

Japanese Americans at an internment camp in Santa Anita, California. Photo: Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

1942-1945 — Japanese internment: During World War II, the U.S. forced over 100,000 people of Japanese descent — the majority of whom were U.S. citizens — into internment camps. 

Late 1970s-early 1980s — KKK attacks: The Ku Klux Klan, claiming the Vietnamese fishermen were stealing American jobs, patrolled the waters off the coast of Texas and attacked the fishermen’s boats. 

1982 — Murder of Vincent Chin: Two white men in Michigan beat Vincent Chin, a Chinese American man, to death, blaming him for the success of the Japanese auto industry. They served no jail time. 

Supporters gather during a candlelight vigil in Union Square for victims of the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting on August 8, 2012 in New York City.

Sikh men and their supporters hold a candlelight vigil in New York for victims of the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting in 2012. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

2012 — Sikh Temple shooting: A white supremacist fatally shot six people at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin on Aug. 5, 2012, a. A seventh victim died of his injuries last year. The attack came amid a surge of post-9/11 violence against Muslims or anyone perceived to be Muslim, including many South Asians.

2020 — Anti-Asian hate crimes surge: Last year saw a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes that many attributed to anti-Asian rhetoric during the coronavirus pandemic.

2021 — Georgia shootings: Asian Americans expressed alarm following the March 16 shootings at three spas near Atlanta, Georgia. Eight people were killed, including six Asian women. 

The bottom line: Ramakrishnan tells Axios the common thread from the 18th century to now “is this notion of the perpetual foreigner, that, ‘they’re never one of us.'”

🎧  Podcast: The history of hate crimes against Asian Americans in the U.S.

How U.S.-China tensions can fuel anti-Asian racism

Governors, former officials condemn anti-Asian attacks

The centuries-long history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the U.S.

Professor Karthick Ramakrishnan on the long, troubling history of discrimination against Asian communities in the U.S.

A soldier escorts several Japanese American children and a pastor in the back of a truck during their evacuation from Bainbridge Island to an internment center. 1942.

A U.S. soldier escorts several Japanese American children and a pastor to an internment camp in 1942. Photo: 

Asian Americans

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

Epic, a subscription reading platform that has doubled its reach to 50 million kids during the pandemic, tracks searches and uses the data to create new books, The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription). 

Why it matters: "When a kid’s sticky fingers search for something to read, Epic captures that activity and feeds the information into its book recommendation engine—a tool that also informs the creation of new titles in-house," the journal explains. Epic's algorithm knows...

"[C]hildren prefer owls to chickens and chickens to hedgehogs. Kids hunt for unicorns almost twice as often as they look for mermaids."

"[O]wls score higher than koalas, worms rack up more hits than kangaroos and ferocious beasts have a loyal following, as does the grumpy-faced blobfish."

"Volcanoes are more popular than tsunamis, which are more popular than earthquakes. The Titanic is bigger than cowboys, pizza is bigger than cake, science is bigger than art and 'poop' is bigger than all of them."

What kids really want to read: Owls beat chickens but poop is king

Subscription platform Epic keeps track of what 50 million kids are searching for in a good read.

Two CatNinja ebook covers, one of a cat and another of an owl.

"Cat Ninja" has been Epic's most popular digital series. Photo: Epic

Children

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

The Biden administration has concluded that China "is flirting with the idea of seizing control of Taiwan as President Xi Jinping becomes more willing to take risks to boost his legacy," the Financial Times reports.                     

Why it matters: An invasion of Taiwan, the self-governed island claimed by Beijing, would force the U.S. to decide whether to go to war with China to defend an implicit ally.

The recent conclusion by the Biden administration is based on Chinese behavior during the past two months a senior U.S. official told FT. 

After a show of force by Chinese bombers off Taiwan just after President Biden took office, the State Department said: "We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan."

Adm. John Aquilino, nominee to head U.S. forces in the Pacific, warned the Senate Armed Services Committee this week that the threat to Taiwan "is much closer to us than most think," CNN reported.

China views taking control of Taiwan as "their No. 1 priority," Aquilino said.

Adm. Philip Davidson, current head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, testified earlier this month that the Chinese military is building up offensive capability, making the threat to Taiwan "manifest during this decade — in fact, in the next six years."

U.S. fears China attack on Taiwan

An invasion of Taiwan would force the U.S. to decide whether to go to war with China to defend an implicit ally.

picture of a Taiwan fighter jet drops flares during a 2019 military exercise simulating a Chinese invasion.

A Taiwan fighter jet drops flares during a 2019 military exercise simulating a Chinese invasion. Photo: Tyrone Siu/Reuters 

Taiwan

Future

Axios Future

A series of novels that have been turned into a TV show offers one of the most realistic visions of what the colonization of space might actually be like.

Why you should read and watch: "The Expanse" imagines a future where human beings have moved into space without growing much beyond the often unjust political and economic systems of today.

How it works: Set in the 24th century, when humanity has managed to colonize Mars and part of the asteroid belt, "The Expanse" views space not as the final frontier, but as merely the latest backdrop for age-old geopolitical struggles — albeit without the "geo."

Humans have left Earth less out of the spirit of discovery than because their planet had become hot and crowded, with the only opportunities for advancement to be found in the hostile environment of space.

Context: "The Expanse" is an example of "hard sci-fi," meaning it largely operates under the constraints of science as we know it.

So that means no warp drives, no transporters and absolutely no Force.

What definitely exists is gravity, which functions almost as a supporting character on "The Expanse," a factor that always needs to be reckoned with.

Humans who grow up in the lighter gravity of Mars or the asteroid belt can't really function on Earth, which contributes to political divisions.

Analog for "Star Trek" fans: The 1990s series "Deep Space Nine."

But if "Deep Space Nine" was occasionally gritty, "The Expanse" is a veritable Beijing-style sandstorm of grit, featuring brutal worker exploitation, planetary-scale war and very nasty aliens.

Plus Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is such a fan that he reportedly helped save the show from cancellation by moving it to Amazon Prime in 2019.

That's a little odd, given that Bezos is one of the foremost advocates of space settlement, which "The Expanse" largely portrays as a terrible mistake.

The bottom line: Do read the books and watch the show.

Go deeper: "Super Sad True Love Story" keeps coming true

"The Expanse" offers a realistic depiction of space colonization

It imagines a future where we are established in space but still struggle with age-old political problems.

Axios

Saturday's top stories

Myanmar security forces kill more than 100 in deadliest day since coup

Iran, China sign 25-year cooperation agreement

The centuries-long history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the U.S.

What kids really want to read: Owls beat chickens but poop is king

U.S. fears China attack on Taiwan

"The Expanse" offers a realistic depiction of space colonization

Chinese officials brief diplomats on possible COVID-19 origins

Building the AI-enabled factory to perfect manufacturing

Silicon Valley leaders push back on governor recall efforts

Minnesota court rules felony rape charge doesn't apply if victim got willingly drunk

Why the climate crisis will intensify the border crisis