Biden orders US flags flown at half-staff after Atlanta shootings

Outrage grows as US reacts to killing of eight, including six Asian American women, at massage spas in Atlanta, Georgia

President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered US flags be flown at half-staff in honour of eight people killed in a series of shootings at massage spas in Atlanta, Georgia, as outrage grew over rising attacks on Asian Americans in the United States. Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white man, has been charged with killing eight people, including six Asian American women, at massage spas in the Atlanta area on March 16. The shootings, the worst mass killing in the United States since 2019, sent shockwaves through the US’s Asian American community which has seen rising physical assaults, racial slurs and verbal abuse during the coronavirus pandemic.