For racial justice protests, US taps tactical border squads

1 of 6 https://apnews.com/c09fce178cee3633456ac88bc6d971ad
FILE - In this July 24, 2020, file photo federal agents use crowd control munitions to disperse Black Lives Matter demonstrators during a protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Ore. Beyond the debate over the federal response to protests in Portland, there is the question of whether the Department of Homeland Security, with its specialized national security focus, is the right agency for a job that is traditionally the responsibility local police. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — They are the most highly trained members of the Border Patrol, agents who confront drug traffickers along the U.S.-Mexico border and track down dangerous fugitives in rugged terrain.

One day this past week, they were in a far different setting — a city park in Portland, Oregon, looking for two people suspected of throwing rocks and bottles at officers guarding the downtown federal courthouse.

Beyond the debate over whether the federal response to the Portland protests encroaches on local authority, another question arises: whether the Department of Homeland Security, with its specialized national security focus, is the right agency for the job.


It’s not just the Border Patrol Tactical Unit that has been called to duty in Portland. DHS has dispatched air marshals as well as the Customs and Border Protection Special Response Team and even members of the Coast Guard.

“The Department of Homeland Security was never intended as a national police force let alone a presidential militia,” said Peter Vincent, a former general counsel for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is also an agency within DHS.

The deployment of DHS agents and officers is legal, both under existing law and an executive order President Donald Trump signed June 26 to protect federal property and monuments. But it has made the agency, created to improve the nation’s response to terrorism, a target of widespread criticism.

Congress plans to delve into the issue Friday, when the House Homeland Security Committee holds a hearing on the federal response to the protests in Portland and Trump’s announcement that he plans to send federal agents to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to help combat rising crime while making “law and order” a central theme of his reelection campaign.

“Americans across the country are watching what the administration is doing in Portland with horror and revulsion and are wondering if their cities could be President Trump’s next targets,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who is chairman of the committee.

As of Monday, there were 114 federal agents and officers deployed to downtown Portland, according to an affidavit from Gabriel Russell, the regional director of the Federal Protective Service, the DHS component that provides security for federal buildings.

Protests have been taking place in Portland since May 26 but the federal agents kept a “defensive posture” by staying inside federal buildings until July 3, Russell said in the affidavit, filed in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking protections for journalists and other legal observers covering the demonstrations.

That night, according to Russell, protesters attempted to set fire to the federal courthouse and DHS deployed a Rapid Deployment Force as part of “Operation Diligent Valor.”

That same night, Trump stood before Mount Rushmore and accused protesters around the country who have pushed for racial justice of engaging in a “merciless campaign to wipe out our history.” He later criticized officials in Portland for allowing demonstrations to get “totally out of control.”

The officers deploying to Portland are “highly trained,” and many wear camouflage because that’s their duty uniform on the southwest border, according to acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, responding to charges of a militarized response to the protests.

In addition to their previous training, they took a 90-minute online course on the mission and jurisdiction of the Federal Protective Service, police powers and criminal regulations, according to a course description provided to The Associated Press.

Richard Cline, principal deputy director of the protective services, told reporters that DHS officers are given additional training to ensure they act within guidelines established by the Justice Department as they assist an organization that was “quickly overwhelmed” by violent demonstrators.

In this July 21, 2020 file photo, a federal officer pushes back demonstrators at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

Wolf also defended tactics such as tear gas, rubber bullets and having officers sweep people off the street into unmarked vehicles, evoking images of a secret police force.

“We are only targeting and arresting those who have been identified as committing criminal acts, like any other law enforcement agency does across the country every single day of the week,” he said.

On Wednesday, agents from the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, known as BORTAC, set out from the federal courthouse just after midnight in pursuit of two people in dark clothing and carrying makeshift shields suspected of throwing rocks and bottles at officers, according to court records.

The agents struggled with the two, eventually restraining them and turning them over to the Federal Protective Service. One, a 19-year-old man, was charged with felony assault of an officer.

In addition to rocks and bottles, agents and officers at the courthouse have been struck with ball bearings, improvised explosives, fireworks, and balloons filled with paint and feces, Russell said. Some have also had lasers shined at their eyes.


At least 28 officers have been injured and officers have made at least 43 arrests, mostly for misdemeanors.

While the use of BORTAC officers in this environment is unusual, it’s not unprecedented, said Michael Fisher, a former senior official with the agency and member of the unit.

BORTAC officers have been used to serve warrants on suspects considered dangerous, protected emergency personnel during natural disasters and were sent to Los Angeles during the 1992 riots, Fisher said.

“What was happening in Portland is the police were not enforcing ... the laws and it just escalated and that’s the reason it’s gone on well over 50 days now,” said Fisher, who now runs a security company.

Local officials have in turn accused DHS of inflaming the situation, an argument bolstered by the fact that protests grew larger as controversy intensified over the tactics of the federal agents.

Former DHS officials concede the agency has worked with state and local law enforcement before, with the consent and cooperation of local authorities. But in Oregon, officials have accused the federal government of inflaming the situation and asked it to withdraw.

Vincent, who left ICE in 2014 and now works as a consultant, said some current officials are “extraordinarily uncomfortable” with what they have been asked to do in Portland.

“I am deeply concerned as someone who believes in the mission of the agency and knows and respects its officers and agents that these activities will irreparably damage the agency’s reputation,” he said.

___

Associated Press writer Ron Nixon contributed to this report.

Huge Portland protest crowds, standoff with feds go on

By GILLIAN FLACCUS and SARA CLINE

1 of 17 https://apnews.com/847341576e44e4d9e717128db08faad4
Federal officers use ILLEGAL chemical irritants and projectiles to disperse Black Lives Matter protesters at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Friday, July 24, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Since federal officers arrived in downtown Portland in early July, violent protests have largely been limited to a two block radius from the courthouse. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)


PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Thousands of people gathered in Portland streets for another night of protests Friday, the same day a U.S. judge denied Oregon’s request to restrict federal agents’ actions when they arrest people during chaotic demonstrations that have roiled the city and pitted local officials against the Trump administration.

By 8 p.m. a few hundred people, most wearing masks and many donning helmets, stood near the fountain on Salmon Street Springs, one spot where groups meet before marching to the Hatfield Federal Courthouse and the federal agents there. They chanted and clapped along to the sound of thunderous drums, pausing to listen to speakers.

Among various organized groups, including Healthcare Workers Protest, Teachers against Tyrants, Lawyers for Black Lives and the “Wall of Moms,” was Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who spoke to protesters outside the Justice Center.

By 9:40 p.m. crowds of people, pressed shoulder to shoulder, packed the streets chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “Feds go home” as they carried signs and marched to the courthouse.

The Federal agents, deployed by President Donald Trump to tamp down the unrest, have arrested dozens during nightly demonstrations against racial injustice that often turn violent. Democratic leaders in Oregon say federal intervention has worsened the two-month crisis, and the state attorney general sued to allege that some people had been whisked off the streets in unmarked vehicles.




U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman said the state lacked standing to sue on behalf of protesters because the lawsuit was a “highly unusual one with a particular set of rules.”

Oregon was seeking a restraining order on behalf of its residents not for injuries that had already happened but to prevent injuries by federal officers in the future. That combination makes the standard for granting such a motion very narrow, and the state did not prove it had standing in the case, Mosman wrote.

Legal experts who reviewed the case before the decision warned that he could reject it on those grounds. A lawsuit from a person accusing federal agents of violating their rights to free speech or against unconstitutional search and seizure would have a much higher chance of success, Michael Dorf, a constitutional law professor at Cornell University, said ahead of the ruling.

“The federal government acted in violation of those individuals’ rights and probably acted in violation of the Constitution in the sense of exercising powers that are reserved to the states, but just because the federal government acts in ways that overstep its authority doesn’t mean the state has an injury,” he said.

The clashes in Portland have further inflamed the nation’s political tensions and triggered a crisis over the limits of federal power as Trump moves to send U.S. officers to other Democratic-led cities to combat crime. It’s playing out as Trump pushes a new “law and order” reelection strategy after the coronavirus crashed the economy.

Protesters in Portland have been targeting the federal courthouse, setting fires outside and vandalizing the building that U.S. authorities say they have a duty to protect. Federal agents have used tear gas, less-lethal ammunition that left one person critically injured and other force to scatter protesters.


The lawsuit from Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum accused federal agents of arresting protesters without probable cause and using excessive force. She sought a temporary restraining order to “immediately stop federal authorities from unlawfully detaining Oregonians.”

David Morrell, an attorney for the U.S. government, called the motion “extraordinary” and told the judge in a hearing this week that it was based solely on “a few threadbare declarations” from witnesses and a Twitter video. Morrell called the protests “dangerous and volatile.”




Rosenblum said the ramifications of the ruling were “extremely troubling.”

“While I respect Judge Mosman, I would ask this question: If the state of Oregon does not have standing to prevent this unconstitutional conduct by unidentified federal agents running roughshod over her citizens, who does?” Rosenblum said in a statement. “Individuals mistreated by these federal agents can sue for damages, but they can’t get a judge to restrain this unlawful conduct more generally.”

Before the federal intervention, Mayor Ted Wheeler and other local leaders had said a small cadre of violent activists were drowning out the message of peaceful protesters. But the Democrat, who was tear-gassed this week as he joined protesters, says the federal presence is exacerbating a tense situation and he’s repeatedly told them to leave.

Homeland Security acting Secretary Chad Wolf denied that federal agents were inflaming the situation in Portland and said Wheeler legitimized criminality by joining demonstrators, whom Trump has called “anarchists and agitators.”

In the lawsuit, Oregon had asked the judge to command agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Protective Service and the U.S. Marshals Service to stop detaining protesters without probable cause, to identify themselves before arresting anyone and to explain why an arrest is taking place.

Agents have arrested 28 people in Portland this week, including seven from Thursday night’s protests, when they again used tear gas to force thousands of demonstrators from crowding around the courthouse. Protesters projected lasers on the building and tried to take down a security fence. They scattered as clouds of gas rose up and agents fired crowd control munitions.



The Department of Homeland Security said that during Thursday’s demonstrations one federal officer was injured and that “no injuries to protesters or rioters have been reported.”

Wolf said Tuesday that at least 43 people have been arrested on federal charges at that point.

They face federal charges including assaulting federal officers, arson and damaging federal property, U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams said. All the defendants are local and were released after making a court appearance.

U.S. officers “working to protect the courthouse have been subjected to nightly threats and assaults from demonstrators while performing their duties,” according to a statement from Williams’ office.

The Oregon attorney general’s motion was one of several lawsuits against authorities’ actions. A different federal judge late Thursday blocked U.S. agents from arresting or using physical force against journalists and legal observers at demonstrations.

Federal agents use tear gas to clear rowdy Portland protest

By GILLIAN FLACCUS and SARA CLINE

1 of 20
A Black Lives Matter protester uses a shield as federal officers use chemical irritants to disperse demonstrators at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Friday, July 24, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Since federal officers arrived in downtown Portland in early July, violent protests have largely been limited to a two block radius from the courthouse. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Thousands of protesters gathered outside the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, into the early hours Saturday, shooting fireworks at the building as plumes of tear gas dispensed by U.S. agents, lingered above.

The demonstration went until federal agents entered the crowd around 2:30 a.m. and marched in a line down the street, clearing remaining protesters with tear gas at close range. They also extinguished a large fire in the street outside the courthouse.

Portland has been roiled by nightly protests for two months following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. President Donald Trump said he sent federal agents to Oregon’s largest city to halt the unrest but state and local officials say they are making the situation worse.

The clashes in Portland have further inflamed the nation’s political tensions and triggered a crisis over the limits of federal power as Trump moves to send U.S. officers to other Democratic-led cities he says are violent.

Late Friday a federal judge denied a request by Oregon’s attorney general to restrict the actions of federal police.

The Federal Protective Service had declared the gathering in Portland that began Friday evening as “an unlawful assembly” and said that officers had been injured.

As the crowd dispersed, someone was found stabbed nearby, Portland police said. The person was taken to a hospital and a suspect was taken into custody.

By 3 a.m., most demonstrators had left, with only some small groups roaming the streets.

Earlier Friday night, the protest had drawn various organized groups, including Healthcare Workers Protest, Teachers against Tyrants, Lawyers for Black Lives and the “Wall of Moms.” As the crowd grew — authorities estimate there were 3,000 present at the peak of the protest — people were heard chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “Feds go home” to the sound of drums.

Later, protesters vigorously shook the fence surrounding the courthouse, shot fireworks towards the building and threw glass bottles. Many times these actions were met by federal agents using tear gas and flash bangs.

The flow of tear gas caused protesters to disperse at times, as others remained toward the front of the courthouse with leaf blowers directing the gas back to the courthouse. Federal agents had leaf blowers of their own to counteract.

Daniel Pereyo was one protester who was tear-gassed.

Pereyo said he had been at the nearby park watching drummers and fireworks being shot, when his face and eyes began to burn.

“It’s extremely painful,” he said. “It’s not the worst pain ever, but it is discomforting and it’s distracting.”

As the clouds of gas floated down the street, protesters would swiftly regroup and return to chant and shake the fence that separates the people on the street from federal agents and the courthouse.

It was unclear whether anyone was arrested during the protest. The federal agents have arrested dozens during nightly demonstrations against racial injustice that often turn violent.

The state attorney general sued, saying some people had been whisked off the streets in unmarked vehicles. U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman ruled Friday the state lacked standing to sue on behalf of protesters because the lawsuit was a “highly unusual one with a particular set of rules.”

Oregon was seeking a restraining order on behalf of its residents not for injuries that had already happened but to prevent injuries by federal officers in the future. That combination makes the standard for granting such a motion very narrow, and the state did not prove it had standing in the case, Mosman wrote.

Legal experts who reviewed the case before the decision warned that the judge could reject it on those grounds. A lawsuit from a person accusing federal agents of violating their rights to free speech or against unconstitutional search and seizure would have a much higher chance of success, Michael Dorf, a constitutional law professor at Cornell University, said ahead of the ruling.

“The federal government acted in violation of those individuals’ rights and probably acted in violation of the Constitution in the sense of exercising powers that are reserved to the states, but just because the federal government acts in ways that overstep its authority doesn’t mean the state has an injury,” he said.
ADVERTISEMENT



The lawsuit from Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum accused federal agents of arresting protesters without probable cause and using excessive force. She sought a temporary restraining order to “immediately stop federal authorities from unlawfully detaining Oregonians.”

David Morrell, an attorney for the U.S. government, called the motion “extraordinary” and told the judge in a hearing this week that it was based solely on “a few threadbare declarations” from witnesses and a Twitter video. Morrell called the protests “dangerous and volatile.”

Rosenblum said the ramifications of the ruling were “extremely troubling.”

“Individuals mistreated by these federal agents can sue for damages, but they can’t get a judge to restrain this unlawful conduct more generally,” Rosenblum said in a statement.

Homeland Security acting Secretary Chad Wolf denied that federal agents were inflaming the situation in Portland and said Wheeler legitimized criminality by joining demonstrators, whom Trump has called “anarchists and agitators.”

Wolf said Tuesday that at least 43 people have been arrested on federal charges at that point. Charges included assaulting federal officers, arson and damaging federal property, U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams said. All the defendants are local and were released after making a court appearance.

___

Sara Cline reported from Salem. Cline is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Associated Press writer Andrew Selsky contributed from Salem, Oregon.
Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus.

'We're not yet at the point where someone can say they don't want children and people just go, 'oh right, that's cool'' - Emma Gannon on being child-free
Journalist Emma Gannon's debut novel explores one woman's decision to remain childless. Having already documented her own stance on motherhood, she tells Tanya Sweeney why we need to start a conversation about what child-free means for a new generation

Emma Gannon. Photo: Paul Storrie

July 25 2020 02:30 AM

Ask any female novelist about the most annoying question they get asked in interviews, and many will admit that they're often asked about how much of the character is written from real life. It's a question that British author Emma Gannon is having to field a lot right now.

"It definitely does annoy me a little bit," she laughs. "Other female authors have prepared me in advance about how I'll get asked this, although it's up to me how much I want to reveal."

As it stands, Gannon has much in common with the protagonist of her lively and readable debut novel, Olive. In it, the British podcaster/journalist mulls over a pertinent question: what does a life without children look like for a modern woman in her thirties?

Naturally, Gannon's own stance on wanting children has emerged. As a journalist, Gannon has already written about how much she enjoys her child-free existence.

"I felt conflicted about it," she tells me, referring to her decision to disclose her own stance on wanting kids.

"Part of me wants to do the eye-roll, and there are people who think I've pretty much written a memoir. But on the other hand, I feel I'd be doing a disservice to the reader if I didn't talk about it. We do write about what we know, and I'm not going to pretend that this is something that has nothing to do with me."

Gannon's titular protagonist finds herself at a crossroads, trying to figure out many things. Flying high in her career as a journalist, a freshly single Olive is more than aware that her 'child-free by choice' status marks her out as a bit of an outlier.

As her friends gravitate towards marriage and motherhood (and all the struggles and challenges therein), Olive is forced to check back in with herself and re-evaluate her stance on not wanting children.

Gannon handles this with élan, putting on the page the various complexities, challenges and uncertainties of the child-free existence.

"There is a sense of being a little exposed, but when you write fiction you're in a bit of an invisibility cloak, and you can wander around saying all these interesting things through the mouths of your character," Gannon smiles. "Sometimes, they do come from my deepest, darkest thoughts - works of fiction are weirdly truthful."

Though Olive is the undisputed heroine of the book, her college pals Cecily, Bea and Isla are also forging their own territory as parents; something that afforded Gannon the chance to "play with ideas of what motherhood can be".


"I suppose that sort of symbolises how I feel," she says. "I'm 31. I don't think I want children. I don't want to set it in stone as it's too soon to make any kind of definitive statement about it, but it's been fun writing the alternative."

Engaged to be married next year, Gannon hears the 'you'll be next' refrain from well-meaning types more often than she'd like. "When I'm with my nephews, I get a lot of that," she smiles. "The other one I get is, 'you'll change your mind eventually'. My favourite though is, 'who will look after you when you're older?' The one I find quite offensive is, 'maybe you've not met the right person yet'. I've met the right person - that's not the issue. We're not yet at the point where someone will say that they don't want children and people will just go, 'oh right, that's cool'.

Unlike Gannon, Olive, at 33, is absolute in her decision that she wants to remain child-free. It's not easy to find characters like Olive in today's swathe of fiction, which is exactly why Gannon decided to write the book.

"I do think it's something we need to talk about more, about what 'child-free' means for a new generation," Gannon notes.

One motif that still somehow endures is that of a 'cold war' between child-free women and mothers, and it's an idea that Gannon wanted to tease out in Olive.

"It's a weird one, isn't it? I did hear someone say that once in a workplace, they sort of hinted that the child-free should be doing more of the work. I suppose I wanted to bust the myth that child-free people always have so much time. The truth is, there's a lot going on for a lot of us. And just because you don't have children, you can still nurture and love and give back.

"I think this is a book about how we are all more similar than we think, there is no real divide there - no binary," Gannon continues.

"Womanhood comes in many forms, and the 'us and them' is just problematic. Some people would love to have children, and can't. How lovely would it be if we could all just work together and just live and let live, in a beautiful harmony?

"Ultimately, at the heart of the book, I wanted to write about friends - people who have been in the same boat, gone through school and university together, and feel they have the same benchmarks to hit. Suddenly, in your thirties, you can feel distant from them, and threatened by their new life: 'will they stop seeing you if you have a child?' I think these are very typical fears that come to mind for women.

"It speaks to the insecurities women feel - are we making the right choice? You can often tell when you're being horrible to someone or a bit mean, it's often to do with fear, and being scared of someone making judgements on you. You start to worry about things like, 'is my friend ahead in her career?' There's a real taboo around those kinds of judgements among friends.

"So many people have said, 'Olive feels so true to me, as I've had these sort of fallouts with friends'," Gannon adds. "People say they don't get invited to mum things anymore if they don't have their own child. I'm glad the novel is painting that reality. Luckily, I don't have those struggles with my own friends - we respect each other's priorities and whenever I, say, have a book launch or something, my friends are there, showing up."

Teasing apart taboos and having tricky conversations has long been part of Gannon's professional lifeblood. And her innate curiosity has made her podcast, Ctrl Alt Delete, one of the most popular business podcasts in the UK.

"I think I always knew I wanted a job where I could get to be nosy and ask a lot of questions," Gannon says. "I love having the sort of conversations that make me uncomfortable. Curiosity often leads the way - I like that it helps you learn more."

With over six million downloads, Ctrl Alt Delete has seen Gannon interview everyone from our own Sharon Horgan and US actor Ellen Page to director Greta Gerwig and Gillian Anderson about their work lives. It was also the first podcast recorded inside Buckingham Palace.

"I genuinely love every single person I've interviewed but I often think back to the interview with (philosopher) Alain de Botton, because he just comes at things from a very different angle."

Her non-fiction debut, Ctrl Alt Delete, was released in 2016, and was swiftly followed by The Multi-Hyphen Method, "a new business book for the digital age".

In it, Gannon extols the virtues of a 'portfolio career', and exploring our own entrepreneurial spirit to create many strings for our own bows. Talking to people who run blogs or run online stores in their spare time, Gannon's book suggests working less and creating more and defining your own version of success.

"I don't necessarily agree that everyone should have a side hustle - it's another plate to spin for some people, but if you have a passion project, or an idea, and have whatever it takes to get started, ask yourself, will it improve your mental health? Will it help you meet new people? Are you happier being creative? "It's not even about making more money - it's about something that brings you joy."

Although released two years ago, The Multi-Hyphen Method has even more relevance in the current climate, where people in lockdown have been re-evaluating their work lives.

"It's a strange one, isn't it?" Gannon agrees.

"Two years ago I was talking about flexible working and new ways of working, and basically how a full-time job isn't a safety net anymore, and no one really wanted to hear it. No one really believed that flexible working could be the future. There was still a sense that people must still go to their desks and work from 9 to 5.

"It's been interesting, it's like we've been thrown into this social experiment [during the pandemic]," she adds. "Two years ago I had CEOs tell me they'd never allow employees to work from home, but now they're all working from home."

In The Multi-Hyphen Method, Gannon also writes of the benefits of self-promotion: something I tell her doesn't necessarily come easily for Irish people.

"It's really hard for some people - either it comes naturally to them, or the thought paralyses them with fear," asserts Gannon.

"I tend to tell people that we're now living in a culture where self-promotion is pretty much part of the job. So much recruitment is done online, and there's a lot of competitiveness with the internet, and if you're not showing up for yourself on social media, it does have a knock-on effect. There's a way to self-promote that doesn't feel icky or boasty. Just use the way you'll tell your best friend what you're doing. It really is an extension of the job, and it will help you get more work."

With success in both the fiction and non-fiction realm, Gannon is now working, true to form, on a number of different side projects in addition to her podcast and day job.

"Maybe there's another novel [in my future], but I have another non-fiction book about self-sabotage out in September, too," she reveals. "I wrote Olive in secret, almost like an experiment. I don't necessarily want to leave non-fiction behind. I love that world far too much."

'Olive' by Emma Gannon, published by HarperCollins, is out now

Diarmuid Gavin: Giving ex-battery rescue hens a new lease of life can also benefit your garden

I'm excited to give some ex-battery rescue hens a new lease of life - and add a new dimension to my garden

A rooster and a hen in the garden.

Diarmuid Gavin
July 25 2020

I've always wanted to keep chickens but this interest was not shared by other members of the family and as I spent most of my time abroad, I'd have had to rely on an unenthusiastic home farmer to look after them.

Lockdown changed all that and focused the mind - it's now or never for many things. I've a pretty garden, and some space and the ability to give ex-battery chickens a new lease of life. I'm also making a television series called Gardening Together which needs content so despite family opposition, I've got my way.

Paul Smyth, who I work with, is from a farming background - hens were second nature to him and because gardens and plants were first nature to him, he convinced me that they were the perfect partners.

So a couple of weeks ago I took delivery of three hens who were rescued from a battery farm and installed them in the new coop. In advance I'd fenced off an area of the garden. This was to protect them from predators and to protect the rest of my garden from being hen pecked. Hens can cause damage to plants so I've been learning from experts what plants to grow and what to avoid. It's also going to be a matter of trial and error and already some plants have been trampled. However, in terms of cost-benefit analysis, I'm happy to trade some herbaceous plants for those delicious daily fresh eggs.

Rhododendron



There are other benefits to the garden. Hens are fantastic at hoovering up slugs and other pests so I'll probably let them go free range around the whole plot occasionally to do a bit of pest control. Their manure will also be a valuable fertiliser. Like other animal manure, such as horse manure, it shouldn't be used fresh as this can burn plants. It's best mixed in with other garden compost where it accelerates the composting process. Even then it tends to be quite alkaline so it's best not used around your ericaceous plants such as rhododendrons (pictured above), azaleas, camellias and any heathers.

Hens will eat almost any plant if hungry but they're not overly fond of pungent tastes, so anything herby may survive. I sited the chicken run where my herb garden is and so far they aren't tucking into any of the rosemary, sage, chives, lemon balm, mint, thyme, or bay. They have, however, quickly decimated the hostas, sweet peas and echinaceas and there's no point growing any leafy veg here as that would be simply irresistible to them.

I've been told daffodils and other spring bulbs such as crocus, snowdrops, hyacinths, blue bells and tulips should be fine so I'll be planting bulbs here in the autumn. Prickly evergreen shrubs such as holly will probably be last on their menu so could form a useful barrier in areas you don't want them to roam. There are many ornamental salvias which should be fine as well as lavender and achillea, both of which are fragrant when crushed.

I've had my three hens living here for a few weeks now and so far it's a joy. I open their coop in the morning, scatter their feed and give them fresh water. And they cluck away happily. They each produce an egg a day... which up to this point is still thrilling for me. I clean out their mess every few days and close their door at night to keep safe from the nocturnal fox.

And I find myself sticking around their enclosure for 20 minutes here and there, enjoying the sound and movement they've brought to our suburban space.
Top Tip

Littlehill Animal Rescue and Sanctuary is active on Facebook and regularly announces rehoming dates. It has a sanctuary in Co Kildare where it can arrange a hen adoption for which it charges a small fee.

Two days after I delivered my last draft, the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic' - Emma Donoghue's timely new novel is set in Ireland during Spanish Flu outbreak

Emma Donoghue's new novel The Pull of the Stars is set in Ireland during the devastating Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918. The Room author explains how she came to write such a timely book

Author Emma Donoghue

July 19 2020 02:30 AM

The Great Flu of 1918-19 - misnamed the Spanish Flu by the governments of nations involved in the First World War, so as not to depress morale by admitting that this new strain of influenza was cutting a swathe through their populations too - hit the whole world hard, at the end of more than four years of devastating conflict.

Best estimates say 3pc of the global population died of it - far more than in the war's battles and bombings.

In Ireland, the mortality rate was by no means that high - perhaps 0.7pc, which still meant more than 20,000 people were lost. (The typical winter flu carried off old people, but the Great Flu was known for targeting young adults instead, so a whole generation of children were orphaned by it.)

So why would I choose Dublin as my setting for a novel about that pandemic, when I began to write The Pull of the Stars on the centenary of the outbreak, back in October 2018?

One reason was authenticity: I anted to create an absolutely credible drama set in one small maternity ward where women with bad cases of the new flu would be sent if they were also heavily pregnant, because before and after labour women and their babies were particularly vulnerable to this virus's effects.

I thought I could get the voices of my protagonist Nurse Julia Power, Doctor Kathleen Lynn (the one real historical figure in the novel), and their mostly working-class patients more right, and more flavourful, if I drew on the Hiberno-English I grew up with, and its flair for loquaciousness and dark humour.

My title echoes Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, because his plays (performed at the Abbey) were my first glimpse into the lives of the Dublin poor and those ground-down, heroic mammies.

But I also liked the idea of an Irish setting because that meant taking an already complicated situation - a pandemic, hard on the heels of a world war - and throwing in the extra complication of our lurch towards independence.


I drew a lot on two excellent histories of the crisis, Caitriona Foley's The Last Great Plague: The Great Flu Epidemic in Ireland 1918-19 and Ida Milne's Stacking the Coffins: Influenza, War and Revolution in Ireland 1918-19 (as someone who has published academic studies as well as fiction, I know how much the latter often draws on the tireless and pretty much unpaid research and analysis that goes into the former).

If (allow me to generalise wildly) my grandparents' generation was mostly shocked and unimpressed by the Easter Rising in 1916, but mostly voted for Sinn Féin in 1919, then the pace of changing opinion in those years must have been startlingly rapid, I thought. What if I took a nurse who feels she has "no time for politics" and put her through the extraordinary peak of the epidemic, working past the point of exhaustion in an understaffed, understocked hospital?

Might she begin to question both the British Government's and the Catholic Church's roles in shaping the lives of her slum-dwelling, malnourished, ever-pregnant patients?

How might she be changed, as the country around her changed?

Read More
Emma Donoghue fills her pandemic period piece with death and historical detail

Two days after I delivered my last draft of The Pull of the Stars, the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. The novel wasn't due to come out till 2021, but my publishers decided it was so timely they should move it up to summer.

I didn't add a single echo of today to the novel, in the copy-editing process; it felt all too weirdly similar already. Maybe that's because the fear of invisible germs, weighed against the need to carry on with life anyway, is the same in any time and place.

The Pull of the Stars is called that because influenza comes from influence - Renaissance Italians thought the illness was caused by the influence of the stars.

But in researching and writing this novel, and even more as I've watched how Covid-19 has played out under different political regimes across the world, I've become more and more aware that health is political: a human right snatched away from so many, whether at the point when they're born (the most dangerous single day in a life) or later, but still too early.

Boris Johnson's notoriously vague 'Stay Alert' reminds me of the 1918 public information posters headed 'Save Yourself From Influenza': victim-blaming, across the centuries. And when I hear blustering leaders blaming the poor - especially Black communities - for what they imply are self-inflicted pre-existing conditions that leave them vulnerable to coronavirus, I think of those who died in 1918 partly because they were too tired, ill-fed or weakened by previous sickness to ward this one off. Because (like migrant farm workers today, say) they were in no position to follow useless government advice along the lines of, 'On feeling the first symptom of influenza, take to your bed and rest for a fortnight'.

This may all sound grim, but as usual I found it cathartic and even cheering to set a story in dark times, and even find some light at the end of it.

I'm glad to be publishing a novel that shines a spotlight on the astonishing courage and stamina of frontline healthcare workers (so many of them women).

I'm deeply grateful that our state of scientific knowledge is so much better than in 1918, when all doctors could offer bad flu cases was aspirin or whiskey.

This too shall pass, says the medieval Persian proverb. Or as Kathleen Lynn in my novel puts it, "the human race settles on terms with every plague in the end".

Emma Donoghue is the author of novels including Room, The Wonder and Akin. The Pull of the Stars is published on July 21 by Picador Book

A Writer's llfe: Packed with generous sympathy

Emma Donoghue was born in Dublin in 1969, the youngest of eight children. Her father was the literary critic, Denis Donoghue. She went to UCD and studied English and French, then moved to England and did a PhD at Cambridge. She has written screenplays, short stories, children's books and non-fiction as well as novels, and counts herself lucky enough to never have had an "honest job" since being sacked after a single summer month as a chambermaid.

In 2004, Publishers Weekly described her as "distinguished by her generous sympathy for her characters, sinuous prose and an imaginative range that may soon rival that of AS Byatt or Margaret Atwood".

In 2010 she published Room, an international bestseller that was shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange Prize, and won the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year, along with many other awards.

Room was very soon made into a film directed by Lenny Abrahamson, for which Emma wrote the screenplay. It won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Film, the Irish Film and Television Academy Award for Best Film, among many other awards. Emma now lives in London, Ontario, with Chris Roulston and their children, Finn and Una.

In 2011, she wrote a wise and funny piece on parenting: "If you're out in public with your kids, it can feel as though the CCTV cameras are always trained your way. Every parent I know jokes about the nightmarish possibility of being reported to Child Protection Services. You can bring down the wrath of a stranger simply by failing to keep a broad-brimmed sunhat on your child or letting her race around with a lollipop in her mouth.

"You might think that, having defied convention when it came to conception (anonymous donor, two mothers, as I tell anyone at the playground rash enough to ask 'is their dad tall?'), I'd be relaxed about what people thought of my parenting at the micro level. But no, I still get that Bad Mum Blush when our daughter bloodies her knee and I - not having a plaster - have to improvise with an old tissue."

Emily Hourican

Protests against governor’s arrest continue in challenge to Kremlin

Sergei Furgal has been in a Moscow jail since he was detained on July 9 on murder charges.

Thousands protested in support of Sergei Furgal (Igor Volkov/AP)

By Associated Press Reporter

July 25 2020

Tens of thousands of people have marched across the Russian city of Khabarovsk to protest against the arrest of the regional governor on murder charges, continuing a wave of demonstrations that has lasted two weeks in a challenge to the Kremlin.

Sergei Furgal has been in a Moscow jail since his arrest on July 9, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has named an acting successor.

Protesters in Khabarovsk, near the border with China, see the charges against Furgal as unsubstantiated and demand he goes on trial at home.

The continuing large-scale protests are seen as a challenge to the Kremlin (Igor Volkov/AP)

Unlike in Moscow where police usually move quickly to disperse unsanctioned opposition protests, authorities have not interfered with the demonstrations in Khabarovsk, apparently expecting them to fizzle out over time.

But daily protests, peaking at weekends, have now gone on for two weeks, reflecting anger at what local residents see as Moscow’s disrespect of their choice of governor and simmering discontent with Mr Putin’s rule.

Authorities suspect Furgal of involvement in several murders of businessmen in 2004 and 2005. He has denied the charges, which date back to his time as a businessman with interests focusing on timber and metals.

A politician on the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party ticket, Furgal won the 2018 election even though he had refrained from campaigning and even publicly supported his Kremlin-backed rival.


 

The region’s governor Sergei Furgal was arrested on July 9 and is being held in Moscow (Igor Volkov/PA)

His victory was a humiliating setback to the main Kremlin party, United Russia, which also lost its control over the regional legislature.

During his time in office, Furgal earned a reputation as a “people’s governor”, cutting his own salary, ordering the sale of an expensive yacht that the previous administration had bought and offering new subsidies to the population.

Mikhail Degtyaryov, appointed by Mr Putin on Monday as Furgal’s successor, is also a member of the Liberal Democratic Party – a choice that was apparently intended to calm the local anger.

Mr Degtyaryov has refrained from facing the protesters and left the city on Saturday for an inspection trip across the region.


PA Media

Protesters clash with federal agents outside Portland courthouse

Demonstrators were heard chanting ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Feds go home’.

Tear gas fills the air outside the federal courthouse in Portland (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)


By Gillian Flaccus and Sara Cline, Associated Press

July 25 2020 12:11 PM

Thousands of protesters gathered outside the federal courthouse in Portland into the early hours of Saturday, directing fireworks at the building as plumes of tear gas dispensed by US agents lingered above.

The demonstration went on for hours until federal agents entered the crowd at around 2.30am and marched in a line down the street, clearing remaining protesters with tear gas at close range. They also extinguished a large fire in the street outside the courthouse.

The Federal Protective Service had declared the gathering as “an unlawful assembly” and cited that officers had been injured.

As the crowd dispersed, someone was found stabbed nearby, Portland police said. The person was taken to a hospital and a suspect was detained.

Demonstrators gathered outside the federal courthouse in Portland (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)

By 3am, most demonstrators had left with only some small groups roaming the streets.

Earlier, the protest had drawn various organised groups, including Healthcare Workers Protest, Teachers against Tyrants, Lawyers for Black Lives and the “Wall of Moms”.

As the crowd grew – authorities estimate there were 3,000 present at the peak of the protest – people were heard chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “Feds go home” to the sound of drums.

Later, protesters vigorously shook the fence surrounding the courthouse, shot fireworks towards the building and threw glass bottles. On many occasions, such actions were met by federal agents using tear gas and flash bangs.

The flow of tear gas caused protesters to disperse at times, but some came armed with leaf blowers and directed the gas back to the courthouse.

Officials in Oregon claim the presence of federal officers has inflamed the situation (Noah Berger/AP)

It was unclear whether anyone was arrested during the latest protest. The federal agents, deployed by President Donald Trump to tamp down the unrest, have arrested dozens during nightly demonstrations against racial injustice that often turn violent.

Friday’s protest came hours after a US judge denied the state of Oregon’s request to restrict federal agents’ actions in the city.

Democratic leaders in Oregon say federal intervention has worsened the two-month crisis, and the state attorney general sued to allege some people had been whisked off the streets in unmarked vehicles.

US District Judge Michael Mosman said the state lacked standing to sue on behalf of protesters because the legal action was a “highly unusual one with a particular set of rules”.

A medic treats Black Lives Matter protester Lacey Wambalaba after exposure to chemical irritants deployed by federal officers (Noah Berger/AP)


Oregon was seeking a restraining order on behalf of its residents not for injuries that had already happened but to prevent injuries by federal officers in the future. That combination makes the standard for granting such a motion very narrow, and the state did not prove it had standing in the case, Mr Mosman wrote.

The clashes in Portland have further inflamed the nation’s political tensions and triggered a crisis over the limits of federal power as Mr Trump moves to send US officers to other Democratic-led cities to combat crime.

The legal action from Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum accused federal agents of arresting protesters without probable cause and using excessive force. She sought a temporary restraining order to “immediately stop federal authorities from unlawfully detaining Oregonians”.


  

Federal officers were deployed by Donald Trump in a bid to calm the city (Noah Berger/AP)

David Morrell, a lawyer for the US government, called the motion “extraordinary” and told the judge in a hearing this week that it was based solely on “a few threadbare declarations” from witnesses and a Twitter video.

Ms Rosenblum said the ramifications of the ruling were “extremely troubling”.

She added: “While I respect Judge Mosman, I would ask this question: If the state of Oregon does not have standing to prevent this unconstitutional conduct by unidentified federal agents running roughshod over her citizens, who does?”


PA Media

'Trump will try to steal this election by attacking postal votes'

:: Joe Biden warns of dity tricks

Warning: Joe Biden fears Trump won’t leave White House
Annie Linskey


July 25 2020 02:30 AM

Joe Biden has warned donors that Donald Trump will try to "indirectly steal" the 2020 election by making a case against mail-in ballots, a voting method that many are expected to use to avoid exposure to the coronavirus during November's US vote.


The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee asked donors attending a virtual event to spread the word that "this president is going to try to indirectly steal the election by arguing that mail-in ballots don't work".


Mr Trump will present mail-in ballots as fraud by making the argument that "they're not real, they're not fair", said Mr Biden.


On 'The Daily Show With Trevor Noah' in June, Mr Biden had warned that Mr Trump might "try to steal" the election. He has said Mr Trump might try to delay the election and might not leave the White House voluntarily if he loses.


Mr Biden's remarks offered the most detail about how he believes Mr Trump might unfairly influence the contest's outcome. Mr Biden's campaign has mounted an aggressive voter-access effort, including hiring a team of lawyers to challenge any irregularities.


They come as Mr Trump in recent weeks has stepped up his rhetoric about the veracity of mail-in voting. At an event last month in Arizona, the US president suggested without evidence that the method presents an opportunity for fraud.


"Where are they going? Where are these ballots going? Who's getting them? Who is not getting them? A little section that's Republican," Mr Trump said, speaking specifically about California's vote-by-mail system.


"Will they be stolen from mailboxes as they get put in by the mailman? Will they be taken from the mailmen and the mailwomen? Will they be forged? Who is signing them? Who's signing them? What, are they signed on the kitchen table and sent in? Will they be counterfeited by groups inside our nation?"

Mr Trump added: "Will they be counterfeited, maybe by the millions, by foreign powers who don't want to see Trump win?"


Matthew Morgan, the general counsel to the Trump campaign, accused Mr Biden of sowing fear.


"Joe Biden is fearmongering and purposely misleading American voters," said Mr Morgan said. "The only people trying to fundamentally change the way we vote and make our election system less secure are Democrats."



Meanwhile Mr Trump has attempted to make dementia an issue in the campaign during a TV interview.


His phrase "Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV." got an unlikely moment in the spotlight. The president (74) was attempting to demonstrate his mental fitness by reciting five words, in order over and over in a television interview.


He said the collection of nouns was part of a cognitive test he had aced while declaring that his likely Democratic opponent, Joe Biden (77), could not do the same.


The Trump campaign has long tried to paint Mr Biden as having lost some of his mental sharpness.


But the gambit has yet to prove successful in denting the former vice president's standing in the race.


That leaves Mr Trump trying to escalate the attacks while defending his own ability to handle the mental rigours of the job.


On Fox News Mr Trump boasted of having "a good memory, because I'm cognitively there". But he said: "Now Joe should take that test because something's going on." (© The Washington Post)

Pronouns Suck? Tesla Founder Elon Musk Tweets Ugly Comment Mocking Transgender Inclusion
Seth CohenContributor
Leadership Strategy
I write about leadership, politics, inclusion and social change.

Over the past twenty-four hours, Elon Musk has stirred up controversy on Twitter, sharing a series of social media posts that once again has put the outspoken founder of Tesla and SpaceX in the spotlight. However, it’s his apparently transphobic two-word Tweet from Friday evening that has prompted outrage.

Musk, who added a red rose to his Twitter name in an apparently mocking reference to the symbol used by members of the Democratic Socialists of America, first posted, and then pinned, a Tweet suggesting that there isn’t a need for the additional federal stimulus package currently being debated in Congress. That Tweet was followed by a reference to universal basic income, a concept that Musk has tweeted favorably about in the past.

Then, eleven hours after posting that “Twitter sucks,” Musk shared what many found to be an offensive and transphobic Tweet commenting that “pronouns suck.” Musk’s Tweet appears to be a mocking criticism of gender-neutral personal pronouns, used by many in an effort to be more inclusive of transgender and non-conforming individuals.

The online criticism of Musk was immediate, apparently even drawing the ire of his girlfriend, musical artist Grimes. In a since deleted Tweet, the musician, whose real name is Claire Boucher and who is a co-parent of Musk’s child, tweeted a reply saying “I love you but please turn off ur phone or give me a dall [sic]. I cannot support this hate. Please stop this. I know this is not your heart.”

Musk’s tweet on Friday isn’t the first time his use of the popular social media medium has sparked outrage — Musk has a long history of taking to Twitter to express his amusement, irritation, and exploration of whatever topic crosses his mind. But his use of Twitter has also landed him in legal trouble. In 2018, Musk was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to a Tweet by Musk that claimed he had secured funding to take his publicly-traded company Tesla private at $420 a share. The lawsuit, which asserted that Musk had misled investors, was settled by Musk later that year, with the entrepreneur paying a $20 million fine and relinquishing his role as Chairman of the Board of Tesla.


WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 09: Elon Musk, founder and chief engineer of SpaceX speaks at the 2020 ... [+] GETTY IMAGES

Musk also got into hot water in 2018 for a subsequently deleted Tweet in which Musk used the term “pedo guy” to describe Vernon Unsworth, a British caver and one of the rescuers of the 12 boys and their soccer coach that were famously trapped in a cave in Thailand in July, 2018. Unsworth sued Musk for defamation in California, but a jury found that Musk was not liable to Unsworth. For his part, Musk answered that his Twitter comment, which seemingly was a reference to pedophilia, was “heated rhetoric” and not meant to state that Unsworth was, in fact, a pedophile.

Musk’s newest Tweet comes at a time when America is already mired in a national debate about issues of identity and inclusion, and in particular, inclusion of transgender individuals. In addition to ongoing discrimination of transgender individuals in all aspects of American society, there is also a troubling trend of violence against trans individuals in the United States. According to Human Rights Campaign (HRC), in 2019 at least 27 transgender or gender non-conforming people were fatally shot or killed by violence. 91% of the victims were Black women and 81% were under the age of 30. HRC has also counted 22 murders of transgender and non-conforming individuals in 2020, including at least 4 deaths since the start of July.

By seemingly mocking the issue of personal pronoun usage, the widely-followed entrepreneur isn’t just sharing the musings of an eccentric businessman, he is also stoking a cultural conflict and diminishing an issue that is an important aspect of the recognition and inclusion of transgender and non-conforming individuals. While likely not intended to be hateful, Musk’s comment nonetheless shows an incredible amount of ignorance by a man seen by many as one of the boldest and most insightful entrepreneurs of our lifetime. Musk’s Tweet, whatever it’s motivation, should not only be followed by clarification, but it demands an apology as well.

Of course pronouns matter – so does human dignity. If Elon Musk wants to send people to space, perhaps he should spend a bit more time respecting them here on earth first.

Using whatever personal pronoun they prefer.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Seth Cohen

Leaked documents reveal Exxon changed its employee-ranking system amid the coronavirus pandemic, putting more workers at risk of getting cut

Benji Jones

Carlos Jasso/Reuters

Leaked documents revealed Exxon Mobil made changes to its internal employee-ranking system in April, exposing a much larger portion of its staff to performance-based cuts.
In May, Exxon's CEO said the company did not have layoff plans. Four former employees and one current employee said the company was obscuring layoffs in performance-based cuts.
"We do not have a target to reduce headcount through our talent management process," an Exxon representative said. "Employees who need significant improvement (NSI) are given a plan and opportunities to improve their performance."
Almost all major oil companies have taken aggressive action to weather the downturn brought by the coronavirus pandemic, which sent the price of oil tumbling.
Are you a current or former Exxon employee? Reach out to this reporter at bjones@businessinsider.com or through the secure messaging app Signal at 646-768-1657.
For more stories like this, sign up here for our weekly energy newsletter, Power Line.

The oil giant Exxon Mobil, challenged by a collapse in oil prices, made changes to the way it assesses employee performance to cut more workers without using traditional layoffs, according to current and former employees and documents seen by Business Insider.

Exxon ranks its salaried employees based on their performance, according to the documents, five former workers, and one current employee. Employees at the lowest rank, called "Needs Significant Improvement" (NSI), are at risk of being cut.

In April, Exxon expanded the number of employees required to be placed in that lowest category, the documents show, putting 8% or more of salaried US workers at risk of losing their job.

Click here to subscribe to Power Line, Business Insider's weekly energy newsletter.

"We have a rigorous talent-management process which routinely assesses employee performance," Ashley Alemayehu, an Exxon representative, said in a statement to Business Insider. "We do not have a target to reduce headcount through our talent management process. Employees who need significant improvement (NSI) are given a plan and opportunities to improve their performance."

Oil companies have been hammered this year by the coronavirus pandemic, which sapped demand for fuel and sent the price of oil into a tailspin. Today a barrel of Brent crude, the international benchmark, is down about 34% since the start of the year.

Every major oil company has taken aggressive action to weather the downturn, including Exxon. In early June, BP said it would lay off 10,000 workers, citing the coronavirus pandemic, while Chevron announced job cuts of a similar size.

Read more: Layoffs, furloughs, and budget cuts: We're tracking how 20 energy giants from Shell to Chevron have responded to the historic oil market meltdown
'Today we have no layoff plans'

Exxon CEO Darren Woods told investors on May 27 that the company didn't plan to cut jobs.

"Today we have no layoff plans," he said.

In the statement Friday, Alemayehu said Exxon had no plans for layoffs.

Four former employees and one current employee said the change in the review process amounts to layoffs by another name because they would lead to more performance-based cuts. The people spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Business Insider has verified their identities.

Exxon had 75,000 employees at the end of last year, including nonsalaried workers, Alemayehu said.

Before the pandemic, if a company fired a large number of workers, it would have to pay a higher tax for unemployment. That usually creates an incentive to characterize layoffs as performance-related cuts, said Michele Evermore, a senior researcher and policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project.

But because of the pandemic's influence on the economy, every state has waived the requirement that companies pay a premium for laying off staff, she said. So that's likely not what the change to Exxon's performance assessment is about, she said.

The people who spoke with Business Insider said it was about optics — Exxon doesn't want to announce layoffs.
FILE PHOTO: View of the Exxon Mobil refinery in Baytown, Texas Reuters
How Exxon ranks its employees

Exxon sorts its salaried workers into five categories within groups of peers, based on performance, from "outstanding performance" to "performance needs improvement," according to two of the documents reviewed by Business Insider.

"The reason we chose 5 primary categories is that this is the best way of achieving the level of differentiation we need to support a meritocracy and meet our objectives," one of them said.

Within the bottom category, "performance needs improvement," a subset of employees must be assigned to "needs significant improvement," according to the documents and two former employees.

Before the pandemic, Exxon required that a minimum of 3% of employees in certain groups be placed in the NSI category. In April, Exxon bumped up the minimum to 8% and expanded it to include new employees, they said.

"Establishing minimum levels in our lower performance category ensures we maintain a healthy talent pool that is motivated to continuously improve and is replenished on an on-going basis through hiring," an internal document said.

Employees in the NSI category are given a few options, depending on whether they're new hires, according to the former employees and additional documents Business Insider reviewed.

People who have been at Exxon for less than two years have to leave the company. Other employees ranked NSI are given the option to enroll in a performance-improvement plan.

Read more: Layoffs, furloughs, and budget cuts: We're tracking how 20 energy giants from Shell to Chevron have responded to the historic oil market meltdown

Darren Woods, CEO of Exxon REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
'Don't let the performance metrics fool you'

Three of the former employees, all of whom were new hires, said they were caught by surprise when they learned that they were in the bottom rank.

"Up until yesterday, I was not provided any constructive feedback or reason to believe my work would put me in the bottom bracket," said one of the former employees, who was recently told he was in the bottom 8% and would be forced to resign. "Don't let the performance metrics fool you. It was definitely a layoff."

Another former employee said that during her review, she was told that her performance was not in line with her peers, but there "was nothing measurable," she said.

Read more: Big Oil survived the market crisis, but its largest players are still losing billions. 7 top energy analysts laid out what to expect next, from dividend payments to clean-energy investments.

Three former employees also said that when they joined Exxon, they were told they would not initially be ranked.

"As new hires, we were told that we'd just get thrown in the middle, and we didn't have to worry about rankings for the first two years," one of them said. "Then the guidance changed."

This story has been updated to include additional information from current and former Exxon workers.


Get the latest Oil WTI price here.

Get the latest ExxonMobil stock price here.

NEWSLETTER