AP-NORC poll: Police violence remains high concern in U.S.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

A year after George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a white police officer sparked global protests and a racial reckoning, a majority of Americans say racism and police violence are serious problems facing the nation. Yet relatively few believe attention in the past year to the issues has led to positive change.

A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows Americans are more likely than they were before Floyd’s death to say that police violence is a serious problem and about half think police who cause harm on the job are treated too leniently by the justice system. The poll also found that about 6 in 10 Americans say racism in the United States is a very or extremely serious problem; it's similar to the percentage that said the same thing one year ago.

But about half of Americans, including about 6 in 10 Black Americans, say Derek Chauvin conviction of Floyd’s murder has not changed their level of confidence in the criminal justice system. About one-third say their confidence increased. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was convicted in April on state charges of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death. A federal grand jury indicted Chauvin and three other former Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyd’s arrest and death after the poll was conducted.


“Racism is a core feature of American life and it dominates certain relationships between African Americans and white Americans in ways that I don’t see how they’re going to change in the near or distant future,” said Kyle T. Mays, assistant professor in African American Studies and American Indian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

AP-NORC polling showed a shift in views of police violence and injustice toward Black Americans last June, just weeks after Floyd’s killing. In 2019, just 36% of Americans called police violence an extremely or very serious problem. After Floyd was killed, that number increased to 48%, and 45% say so now. About 6 in 10 say police are more likely to use deadly force against a Black person than against a white person.

At 77%, the overwhelming majority of Black Americans say police violence is a very serious problem, compared with 36% of white Americans. Among white Americans, the percentage saying police violence is not a serious problem increased from 26% last June to 36% now; that's roughly the same percentage who said so in 2019, before Floyd's killing.

The partisan gap in views of police violence as a serious problem has also widened since last June. Among Democrats, about 7 in 10 say police violence is a very serious problem. Among Republicans, 58% say it is not a serious problem, compared with 44% last June.

Georgia resident Linda R. Curtis, who was a police officer for 24 years, believes police misconduct is a serious issue, partly because of problematic behavior she witnessed throughout her career. Despite her history within law enforcement, as a Black woman, she worries about her family's safety.

“When police see me, they don't say, ‘Oh, this is a retired police officer,' or that my other half is a retired firefighter or that my two children are sons of a retired police officer and firefighter,” Curtis said. “They just see two Black men and an opportunity. I've always taught my sons how to respond when they're stopped because of what I saw in my own ranks.”

A majority of Americans continue to support sweeping changes to the criminal justice system, including 25% who think it needs a complete overhaul and 43% that it needs major changes. An additional 27% support minor changes, while just 4% think no changes are needed. Black Americans are most likely to call for the largest changes.

Louisiana resident Alan Hence said that as a Black man, he has faced discrimination by police who, he believed, were often aggressive toward him during routine traffic stops because of his race. His personal encounters and the “deep hurt” he felt after the killing of Floyd and other Black Americans at the hands of police reinforced his belief that the nation’s criminal justice system needs to be overhauled.

“This country was founded on supremacy that cultivated racism and I believe that it created a culture in America that stands strong today and has proven extremely hard to change,” said Hence, 40. “But investing in changing police culture, changing their relationships and procedures when dealing with the public, could have a drastic effect.”

Relatively few Americans, 24%, say attention on police violence against Black Americans over the past year has led to change for the better, while 31% say it has led to change for the worse and 44% say it has made no difference. Fifty-four percent of Black Americans say it has not made a difference, with the remainder split evenly between seeing change for the better and for the worse.

“Nothing has really fundamentally changed, even if you put one individual in prison for police violence,” said Mays, the UCLA professor and author of “An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States.”

The House of Representatives passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in March, but the bill is unlikely to win approval in the Senate before the May 25 anniversary of Floyd’s death. The bill, which would end qualified immunity and implement other changes, has faced significant Republican opposition, as well as criticism from some activists who believe it doesn’t go far enough.

Beyond policing, about 8 in 10 Black Americans and about two-thirds of both Hispanic and Asian Americans say racism in the U.S. is a very or extremely serious problem. Among white Americans, about half call it that serious, and about 3 in 10 more say it is moderately serious.

Black Americans say they personally have faced discrimination in a variety of ways. Six in 10 say they have been discriminated against often or sometimes when dealing with the police, compared with just about 1 in 10 white Americans. About 3 in 10 Asian Americans and about 4 in 10 Hispanic Americans say the same.

About 6 in 10 Black Americans also say they have been regularly discriminated against when applying for jobs or in stores or shopping malls, about half when applying for housing or for a loan and about 4 in 10 when receiving health care.

The intersection of dueling crises — the pandemic and the racial justice movement — that have disparately impacted people of color has forced some white Americans in particular to struggle with the nation’s history of racism in ways that they never have before.

“George Floyd definitely had an impact on me,” said Andy Campbell, 57 and an Oklahoma minister. “It was a matter of realizing that the whole country was built on this lie of racism. And that the history of the country was built on a lie of exceptionalism. White supremacy is a white problem. That’s who has to deal with it.”

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Stafford reported from Detroit and Fingerhut from Washington.

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Stafford is a national investigative writer with The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Kat__Stafford.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,842 adults was conducted April 29-May 3 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

Kat Stafford And Hannah Fingerhut, The Associated Press

#STANDINGROCK    #BLACKSNAKE #WATERISLIFE
Judge: Dakota Access line can stay open pending Corps review

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday that the Dakota Access oil pipeline may continue operating while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducts an extensive environmental review.© Provided by The Canadian Press

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg made his decision after attorneys for the pipeline's Texas-based owner, Energy Transfer, argued that shuttering the pipeline would be a major economic blow to several entities, including North Dakota, and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation tribe, in the heart of the state’s oil patch.

Boasberg said the Standing Rock Sioux had to “demonstrate a likelihood of irreparable injury” from the pipeline’s continued operation for him to rule in their favor.

The tribe, he said, has “not cleared that daunting hurdle.”

Attorneys for the Standing Rock Sioux and other tribes say the pipeline is operating illegally without a federal permit granting easement to cross beneath Lake Oahe, a Missouri River reservoir near the Standing Rock reservation that is maintained by the Corps. They said preventing financial loss should not come at the expense of the other tribes, “especially when the law has not been followed.”

“The Court acknowledges the Tribes’ plight, as well as their understandable frustration with a political process in which they all too often seem to come up just short. If they are to win their desired relief, however, it must come from that process, as judges may travel only as far as the law takes them and no further. Here, the law is clear, and it instructs that the Court deny Plaintiffs’ request for an injunction.” Boasberg wrote.

The Standing Rock tribe, which draws its water from the Missouri River, says it fears pollution. The company has said the pipeline is safe.

“We believe the Dakota Access Pipeline is too dangerous to operate and should be shuttered while environmental and safety implications are studied — but despite our best efforts, today’s injunction was not granted,” Jan Hasselman, the EarthJustice attorney representing Standing Rock and other tribes, said in a statement.

The pipeline was the subject of months of sometimes violent protests in 2016 and 2017, during its construction.

The $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile (1,886-kilometer) pipeline began operating in 2017 and environmental groups, encouraged by some of President Joe Biden’s recent moves on climate change and fossil fuels, were hoping he would step in and shut down the pipeline. But the Biden administration left it up to Boasberg, even after the judge asked the Corps to state an opinion on paper, if it had one.

Boasberg on Friday also denied the state of North Dakota’s motion to intervene. State Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem had said the Corps has abandoned its lead role in defending its decision to grant an easement for crossing the river and that the agency can no longer “adequately represent” North Dakota’s interests.

In April 2020, Boasberg ordered further environmental study after determining the Corps had not adequately considered how an oil spill under the Missouri River might affect Standing Rock’s fishing and hunting rights, or whether it might disproportionately affect the tribal community. A federal panel later upheld the judge's ruling, but did not go as far as shutting down the pipeline.

Energy Transfer estimated it would cost $24 million to empty the pipeline and preserve the structure, and said maintenance of the line would cost $67.5 million every year it is inoperable.

Former President Barack Obama’s administration originally rejected permits for the project, and the Corps prepared to conduct a full environmental review. In February 2017, after Donald Trump took office, the agency scrapped the review and granted permits, concluding that running the pipeline under the Missouri River posed no significant environmental issues.

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Kolpack reported from Fargo, North Dakota

Dave Kolpack And James Macpherson, The Associated Press

Lightning strike suspected in deaths of 18 elephants in India and 350 rare antelopes in Kazakhstan

National Post Staff 4 days ago

Thunderbolts are being blamed for the mass deaths of two endangered species that occurred within days of each other.

© Provided by National Post The dead body of a wild elephant, suspected to have been killed by lightning, lays with flower petals and incense after locals offered prayers on a hillside in Nagaon district of Assam state on May  14.

Experts say a massive jolt of lightning resulted in the sudden death of 18 wild Asian elephants in the country’s eastern state of Assam last week.

Villagers discovered the scattered bodies, including of five calves, in a forest reserve in the Nagaon district 160 km from the state capital. The Assam government has launched a high-level inquiry into the incident, Parimal Suklabaidya, state forest and wildlife minister, told Reuters .

“A preliminary report suggests the deaths could be due to lightning although we need to find out through forensic tests if there could be any other reason like poisoning or disease,” noted the minister. In subsequent statements on Twitter , adding he was “deeply pained” by the deaths, he announced a detailed report would be provided by an AFS Officer and a team of veterinarians next week.

Quebec climber falls to his death after being struck by lightning

William Watson: Vaccine blood clots and lightning strikes — the odds are against both

Photos from elephants’ burial show them covered in “severe burn marks,” tweeted his office. A forest ranger, who chose to remain anonymous because he wasn’t allowed to talk to the media, said he found charred trees in the area.

According to media reports, India is home to 30,000 wild Asian elephants, around 60 per cent of the world total, of which twenty per cent, or 6,000, are in Assam.

In a similar occurrence, the ecological ministry in Kazakhstan reported last week that lightning strikes were probably behind the death of 350 highly endangered Saiga antelopes in the country’s west. “There are traces of lightning strikes on the carcasses,” they wrote in a statement to AFP .

The critically endangered species, known by its drooping, snout-like trunk, have existed since the Ice Age but suffered a dramatic decline in 2015 when a bacterial disease halved its population in Kazakhstan in two weeks, according to CBS . However, their population is expected to recover, more than doubling , from 152,600 to 334,400, in two years.

A researcher told Indian Express it’s possible that a single lightning strike could travel across several bodies in proximity as has been deemed likely. “In lightning safety, we advise people to stay at least 2 m away from one another under thunderstorm conditions — long before COVID-19 restrictions were set forth,” the researcher said.

An elephant’s size could also make it significantly more vulnerable than, say, a rat, as the spark passes through a larger mass, the outlet reported.

In 2019, over 200 sheep died in Nepal following a thunderstorm. More than 300 reindeer in a Norwegian plateau were wiped out in a similar disaster in 2016. Scientists said at the time that while the animals were huddled together during bad weather, a jolt of lightning could have traveled through the wet ground, and body to body, with a single charge being enough to stop their hearts en masse.

With files from Reuters

Stunning, but strange cloud phenomenon captured by satellite

Nathan Howes 

WEATHER NETWORK

A mysterious phenomenon that was seen spiralling off the coast of Mexico earlier this month may have had you scratching your head as to what it is.

Stunning 'Von Karman' cloud formations seen swirling over the Pacific

The May 8 imagery captured by satellites is a unique, but peculiar occurrence known as Von Karman clouds -- named after Theodore von Kármán, a Hungarian-American physicist and one of the first scientists to describe the sight, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

So, how do these strange clouds form?

SEE ALSO: Scary cloud seen in Canada's skies not as rare as you think

Michael Carter, a meteorologist at The Weather Network, refers to the Von Karman vortex shedding -- a process that happens when the flow in a stable layer in the atmosphere gets blocked by an obstacle.

© Provided by The Weather NetworkThe May 8 imagery captured off the Mexico coast by satellites is a unique, but peculiar occurrence known as Von Karman clouds. (NOAA)

"Like a rock in a stream, the flow splits around the disruption, usually a mountain or island, and the split flow takes on some spin, leading to swirls. It happens a lot off the West Coast because the water is cold, so you get that stable layer in the atmosphere," says Carter.

With respect to the most recent satellite image, the blocking feature was Guadalupe Island. Winds from the west trekked eastward across the island, forcing air and clouds to go around it. The combination of the two ended up spinning, resulting in the remarkable display of the swirls.

What also makes the phenomenon special is the fact that a Von Karman vortex can't just happen anywhere, and is mostly found in regions encountering trade winds.

According to NOAA, the trade winds are normally found between about 30 degrees north and 30 degrees south of the equator. However, the phenomenon doesn't always have to develop in close proximity to the equator.

© Provided by The Weather Network

A satellite image taken on May 20, 2015, displays another example of Von Karman vortices around the Canary Islands. (NASA)

Satellite sensors have picked up Von Karman vortices in other parts of the globe before, including near the coast of Chile, in the Greenland Sea, in the Arctic, and even adjacent to a tropical storm, according to NASA.

"As long as you can satisfy the requirements to produce Von Karman vortices, which include something like an island that 'sticks up' into the air flow, a favourable wind speed, and cloud cover that can help mark or visualize the wind footprint, they can occur elsewhere on the globe," said AccuWeather lead international forecaster Jason Nicholls, in a story the weather agency recently published.

UPDATE

Volcanic eruption, ensuing chaos kill at least 15 in Congo

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Torrents of lava poured into villages after dark in eastern Congo with little warning, leaving at least 15 people dead amid the chaos and destroying more than 500 homes, officials and survivors said Sunday.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo on Saturday night sent about 5,000 people fleeing from the city of Goma across the nearby border into Rwanda, while another 25,000 others sought refuge to the northwest in Sake, the U.N. children's agency said Sunday.

More than 170 children were still feared missing Sunday, and UNICEF officials said they were organizing transit centers to help unaccompanied children in the wake of the disaster.

Goma ultimately was largely spared the mass destruction caused by the volcano's last eruption in 2002. Hundreds died then and more than 100,000 people were left homeless. But in outlying villages closer to the volcano, Sunday was marked by grief and uncertainty.

Aline Bichikwebo and her baby managed to escape when the lava flow reached her village, but said both her mother and father were among those who perished. Community members gave a provisional toll of 10 dead in Bugamba alone, though provincial authorities said it was too soon to know how many lives were lost.

Bichikwebo says she tried to rescue her father but wasn't strong enough to move him to safety before the family's home was ignited by lava.

“I am asking for help because everything we had is gone,” she said, clutching her baby. “We don’t even have a pot. We are now orphans and we have nothing.”

The air remained thick with smoke because of how many homes had caught fire when the lava came.

“People are still panicking and are hungry,” resident Alumba Sutoye said. “They don’t even know where they are going to spend the night.”

Elsewhere, authorities said at least five other people had died in a truck crash while they were trying to evacuate Goma, but the scale of the loss had yet to be determined in some of the hardest-hit communities.

Residents said there was little warning before the dark sky turned a fiery red, sending people running for their lives in all directions. One woman went into labor and gave birth while fleeing the eruption to Rwanda, the national broadcaster there said.

Smoke rose from smoldering heaps of lava in the Buhene area near the city Sunday.

“We have seen the loss of almost an entire neighborhood," Innocent Bahala Shamavu said. “All the houses in Buhene neighborhood were burned and that’s why we are asking all the provincial authorities and authorities at the national level as well as all the partners, all the people of good faith in the world, to come to the aid of this population.”

Elsewhere, witnesses said lava had engulfed one highway connecting Goma with the city of Beni. However, the airport appeared to be spared the same fate as 2002 when lava flowed onto the runways.

Goma is a regional hub for many humanitarian agencies in the region, as well as the U.N. peacekeeping mission. While Goma is home to many U.N. peacekeepers and aid workers, much of surrounding eastern Congo is under threat from myriad armed groups vying for control of the region’s mineral resources.

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Associated Press writer Jean Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo, contributed to this report.

Justin Kabumba Katumwa, The Associated Press

Amazon EMPOLYEE shareholders demand end to pollution hitting people of color hardest

April Glaser and Leticia Miranda 

An internal petition signed by 640 Amazon tech and corporate employees is asking the company to raise its emissions goals and address the disproportionate environmental harms its logistics empire leaves on Black, Latino, Indigenous and immigrant neighborhoods where its warehouses are often concentrated.

© Provided by NBC News

The petition was organized by the influential employee group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, many of whose members receive stock with their positions, after Amazon successfully appealed to the Securities and Exchange Commission to bar a proposal from the group from being included in the company’s May 26 shareholder meeting. Amazon is the second largest employer in the country, with over 1 million workers, including Whole Foods employees and its vast fulfillment and delivery operations.

“As employees, we are alarmed that Amazon's pollution is disproportionately concentrated in communities of color,” the petition that NBC News obtained reads. “We want to be proud of where we work. A company that lives up to its statements about racial equity and closes the racial equity gaps in its operations is a critical part of that.”

The group is also asking Amazon to offer detailed research about how its logistics and delivery operations pose disproportionate environmental and health hazards to communities of color, and prioritize those communities in its emissions reduction strategy. Amazon is currently committed to neutralizing its carbon emissions by 2040, but the group is asking the company to raise its goal to zero emissions by 2030, the year by when climate science estimates have determined global warming could lead to the irreversible loss of fragile ecosystems.

“We are committed to finding innovative solutions to reduce emissions and are transforming our transportation network with investments that help us deliver packages more sustainably to support the communities where we operate,” Brad Glasser, an Amazon spokesperson, said. “As part of this work, we co-founded the Climate Pledge – a commitment to be net-zero carbon across our business operations 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.”

© David Ryder Pedestrians pass the Spheres, plant-filled biodomes, at Amazon headquarters in Seattle on May 20, 2021. (David Ryder / Getty Images)

The Amazon employee climate group submitted its shareholder proposal because these employees were awarded stock as part of their compensation. Amazon employees first used their stock to present their concerns about the company’s climate impact to their fellow shareholders in 2019. While it didn’t pass, it was the first time workers in the technology industry used their position as owners of company stock to urge their employer to change its business practices.

Dangerous air

Climate change advocates and policymakers have raised concerns about the pollution created by the thousands of diesel trucks, airplanes and vans used nationwide to transport Amazon orders through the company’s vast network of warehouses in order to fulfill its two-day delivery promise. About 80 percent of those warehouses are located in ZIP codes with higher populations of Black, Latino and Indigenous people compared to neighboring ZIP codes in the same metropolitan areas, according to the Amazon employee group’s research with data collected by the logistics consulting firm MWPVL International.

As online shopping increased with the rise of the coronavirus pandemic, communities such as Southern California’s Inland Empire have borne the brunt of the environmental impact from increased pollution, according to a report published last month by the People's Collective for Environmental Justice. The group found that the increase in warehouses in the area correlates with an overall rise in poor air quality and subsequent health problems, including asthma, bronchitis and cancer, that hit communities of color the hardest, according to the report. Amazon is the largest employer in the region with 19 facilities.

Yet, the company is expanding its operations in the Inland Empire with an enormous logistics hub at the San Bernardino airport. The 700,000-square-foot facility is expected to bring 26 additional flights and 500 truck trips per day, which an environmental assessment by the airport authority found will collectively emit 1 ton of air pollution daily. Though the assessment ultimately found that the airport hub would meet federal requirements, then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued the Federal Aviation Administration and the local airport authority last year alleging the project is unlawful and will cause significant harm to the air quality of local communities. The city of San Bernardino is 65 percent Latino, according to the census.

© Watchara Phomicinda California News - July 1, 2020 (Watchara Phomicinda / Orange County Register via ZUMA)

Glasser, the Amazon spokesperson, said the company is installing 10 solar rooftops in the Inland Empire and is investing in large-scale renewable energy projects to move its operations to 100 percent renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of the company’s goals.

The 640 Amazon workers who signed the petition are also asking the company to deploy its electric vehicles in areas most affected by the pollution created by its delivery operations. “An electric delivery truck in a Seattle suburb doesn’t help a kid developing asthma living and going to school near a major shipping center, like in the Inland Empire,” Selene Xenia, an engineering manager at Amazon who is part of the employee climate group, said in an interview.

Some of Amazon’s new electric vehicles are scheduled to be tested in Los Angeles for the first time this year.

Stock options

The Amazon employee climate group helped usher a wave of climate activism at some of the country’s most recognizable technology companies. Thousands of tech workers at companies such as Google, Twitter and Microsoft joined Amazon employees in walking out of their offices in 2019 to press their own employers to do more to tackle climate change.

Shareholder proposals related to climate change began proliferating in the United States in 2014, according to Institutional Shareholder Services, an international corporate governance and investor advisory firm. Just last year, shareholders passed five climate-related proposals at companies such as DollarTree, J.B. Hunt Transport, Phillips 66 and Chevron.

Maximilian Horster, managing director and head of climate solutions with Institutional Shareholder Services, said that all companies need to make an environmental agenda a bigger priority.

“When you look at the magnitude of climate change, 10 or so companies adopting a resolution is not enough,” he said. “Shareholder resolutions are part of the solution. But they are not the only one because there are only so many resolutions out there.”

© Jason Redmond Amazon employees ally at the company's headquarters to demand that leaders take action on climate change on Sept. 20, 2019, in Seattle. (Jason Redmond / AFP - Getty Images file)

Still, Amazon employee climate activism has caught the attention of company executives. Tim Bray, a former vice president at Amazon who resigned last year citing a “culture of toxicity,” signed onto a petition from the group in 2019 calling on the company to reduce its carbon footprint and cut its ties to the oil and gas industry. Amazon also fired two of the employee climate group’s core organizers last year, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, citing violations of company policy that prohibits employees from commenting publicly on its business. The National Labor Relations Board determined last month that their firings were illegal.

Amazon says it disagrees with the labor board’s ruling. “We support every employee’s right to criticize their employer’s working conditions, but that does not come with blanket immunity against our internal policies, all of which are lawful,” Glasser, the Amazon spokesperson, said.

A day before the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice’s organized walkout in 2019, CEO Jeff Bezos announced plans to deploy a fleet of electric vans by 2024 and the company’s goal of going carbon neutral by 2040. Employees still walked out, since their demands called for stronger actions from Amazon. The company denies its climate pledge was made in response to the employee demands.

“I believe that tech workers have a responsibility to speak up about these issues and push their employer,” Xenia, the Amazon employee, said. “Amazon would not exist without its employees. We are its greatest asset.”

“It is not always easy to get leadership to respond or acknowledge quickly. But the more we speak up the more it is clear that we are heard and things do change.”

EU report highlights widespread use of

 ‘stop and search’ on ethnic minorities

Daniel Boffey 

THE GUARDIAN

The scale of the discrimination faced by people from minority ethnic backgrounds at the hands of European police forces has been detailed in an EU agency report marking the anniversary of the killing of George Floyd by an officer in the US.

The findings of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) highlight a general trend in which minority ethnic people are stopped and searched more regularly across the continent, and the particularly stark picture in some European countries.

Nearly half (49%) of immigrants and descendants of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa in Austria were stopped by the police during a recent sample year, compared with 25% of the general population, the report finds. Amnesty International wrote last year that there was “institutional racism within the Austrian police force and other component parts of Austria’s criminal justice system”.

Related: Croatian police accused of 'sickening' assaults on migrants on Balkans trail

A third of Roma in both Croatia and Greece were stopped compared with 18% and 17% of the wider population. In 2018, the Council of Europe (CoE), the 47-member state strong human rights body, castigated the inadequate response of the Croatian authorities to widespread expressions of racism and xenophobia against Serbs, LGBT people, refugees and Roma. The culture of the Greek police has also been heavily criticised by the CoE.

© Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images A demonstrator holds a placard at a protest against the misuse of stop and search powers in London in December.

In Spain, just 4% of the general population reported being stopped by police but that rose to 14% of surveyed immigrants from or descended from north Africa and 32% of Roma. Last year the CoE reported that non-discrimination training for police officers had delivered positive results in Spain but officials found “exceptions concerning ethnic profiling by the police when asking for identity papers on the streets”.

Video: Female black equal rights activist ‘critical’ after shooting, colleagues say (Evening Standard)

In the UK, 3% of the general population was stopped by police compared with 5% of people from or descended from sub-Saharan Africa and 10% of Gypsies and Travellers. The Independent Office for Police Conduct last year criticised the Metropolitan police, responsible for almost half of all the police stops carried out in England and Wales, for multiple errors that had undermined confidence in the community.

Related: Police watchdog castigates forces over use of stop and search

It was found that police across the countries surveyed – the 27 EU member states plus the UK and North Macedonia – most often stopped men, young people, minority ethnic people, Muslims or people who did not identify as heterosexual.

Officers searched or asked one in three minority ethnic people for their identity papers compared with 14% of the general population, defined as all groups surveyed. Four in five people in the general population said police treated them respectfully, compared with 46% from minority groups.

The agency’s paper draws on findings from the FRA’s Fundamental Rights Survey (2020), EU Minorities and Discrimination Survey (2017) and its Roma and Travellers Survey (2020).

The FRA also found a strong belief among those stopped in the last five years, in almost all of the countries surveyed, that ethnic profiling led to them being stopped.

Discriminatory profiling, where race or ethnicity is the police’s sole basis for stopping someone, is unlawful across Europe. In some countries, more than 80% of minority ethnic people surveyed perceived their most recent police stop as an example of profiling.

The perception was most common among immigrants and descendants of immigrants from south Asia in Greece (89%) and Roma in the Netherlands (86 %) and Portugal (84%).

Michael O’Flaherty, the director of the FRA, said: “Everyone has a right to be treated equally, including by the police. One year ago, the Black Lives Matter protests underscored the need to tackle racism and discrimination that are still all too common in our societies. It is time to rebuild trust among all communities and ensure police stops are always fair, justified and proportionate.”

BAN SERVICE FEES!
Customers call out banks for increasing fees during pandemic while profits are up

Erica Johnson 

© Mark Bochsler/CBC 

TD says pricing changes can be a 'delicate issue' and there are other options for customers. BULLSHIT

Audrey Williams was more than a little miffed to learn that fees at TD Bank are going up on June 1.

"I looked at [the letter] and thought, 'This is ridiculous,'" Williams told Go Public, standing outside her TD branch in Scarborough, Ont. "And then a couple of days later, I looked at it and got angry all over again."


What really ticked her off was when she learned her longtime financial institution has continued to rake in billions in profit during the pandemic.

"So what is this about?" she asked. "This is just about trying to get people when they're already down. Kicking them one more time, harder."

Williams and other customers with TD, CIBC, Bank of Montreal and Scotiabank have recently contacted Go Public about fees that increased, or are about to, for a range of accounts, products and services. They all question the timing.

The banks tell Go Public that the increases were made after careful consideration and that other options are available to customers.

But a banking critic says the banks are jacking up fees because no one is stopping them.

"Prime Minister Trudeau said a year ago that the banks should be doing more to help Canadians — and gouging them is not helping them," said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, a citizen group calling for government accountability and corporate responsibility. "It's about time he and the finance minister stepped in."

Williams says TD's changes to its "preferred chequing" accounts — the type she's held for more than 25 years — are "exorbitant and totally unfair." The bank is raising the minimum balance required for avoiding fees from $2,000 to $5,000.

"In an environment where people have lost their jobs, they're on furlough, they're trying to get CERB payments, who's going to be able to keep $5,000 in their bank account to not get service fees?" she asked.

On top of that, for customers who don't maintain the new, higher balance, TD is raising transaction fees on those accounts — from $1.25 to $1.95.

That higher fee will kick in for every transaction, including when customers use their debit card; this after, Williams points out, Canadians were urged to avoid cash transactions in a bid to curb the coronavirus.

TD is also increasing fees for things like overdraft protection on some chequing accounts and wire payments.

"It's a whole shopping cart of money grabs," said Williams. "Just increase to increase to increase. And the only people who're going to suffer are people who need overdraft because their CERB doesn't cover their pay or their rent and their heating and their food."

Other frustrated TD customers reached out to Go Public, too.

"It seems corporately immoral … given the economic ramifications of the pandemic," wrote one customer who said he is on fixed income disability benefit.

"People are struggling," wrote another. "I'm just shocked."

In a statement to Go Public, spokesperson Fiona Hirst said TD understands that fee changes can be a "delicate issue."

"We encourage customers with concerns or questions to talk to us about … the options we have available," Hirst said

Video: Customers frustrated by bank fee hikes during pandemic | Go Public (cbc.ca)

Statistics Canada revealed last week that the country's year-over-year inflation rose at the fastest rate since 2011, up 3.4 per cent.

'Beyond comprehension'

Hikes in bank fees don't happen every year and when they do, they're never popular. Add in a pandemic and that discontent seems to grow.

Various increases have also recently kicked in at BMO and Scotiabank, and are coming for some CIBC customers July 1.

Robert Gerl, a firefighter from Oakville, Ont., complained to CIBC.

"I just thought, especially now, the gall of it," he said. "It's beyond comprehension."

© Martin Trainor/CBC

 Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch says the federal government needs to ensure the big banks do more to help Canadians.

A spokesperson for CIBC said in a statement that the bank's fees "are among the lowest of the major Canadian banks" and that someone from CIBC has contacted Gerl to discuss ways to help him avoid fees.

Raising fees during a pandemic prompted economist and longtime BMO customer Kisan Gunjal to fire off a letter to the bank's ombudsman.

"This is really not the right time for the banks to raise any kind of fees," said Gunjal, from his home in Milton, Ont. "We have to insert the ethics part."

In a statement to Go Public a BMO spokesperson said the bank periodically reviews its plans "and any changes are made after careful consideration."
Billions in profits


The fee increases come after each of the big five banks reported billions in profit for this year's first quarter, profits that were higher than the same period last year for all five and which exceeded analysts' expectations. All of the big five continued to make billions in profits in 2020, but their reported net incomes were down from 2019, before the pandemic, for all but TD.

It all fuels the need for more oversight, according to Conacher, the banking critic. His organization has collected almost 80,000 signatures on a petition urging Ottawa to make the banks do more to help Canadians during the pandemic.

First quarter profits at Canada's 5 biggest banks

"Banking is ... as essential as heating and electricity in terms of living in today's society," he said. "And the government should be regulating like it's an essential service. Which means ensure they serve everyone fairly … and that gouging is prohibited."

He points out that even though Canada's big banks are much smaller than many banks in other countries, four still ranked among the top 50 most profitable in the world in 2020.

Conacher is calling on Ottawa to change the Bank Act, to require independent audits of every division of the banks to determine their profit margins. "And if it's more than a reasonable profit margin of 10 to 15 per cent, then the banks should be forced to lower their fees and interest rates to a reasonable level," he says.

Democracy Watch has called on the government to more closely monitor the banks' profits before, but hasn't seen any action.

"The banks can look back and see that finance minister after finance minister has protected the gouging ... that banks do to millions of Canadians," he said. "I'm just guessing that they think current Finance Minister [Chrystia] Freeland and Prime Minister Trudeau will continue to do the same — roll over and do nothing."

Changing the act could take years. In the meantime, the finance minister could speak to the banks, says Ken Whitehurst, executive director of the Consumers Council of Canada.

"The minister might wave her stick in the form of leading a national conversation ... and see if the banks would choose to ease up," he said.

Go Public asked the ministry what it's prepared to do about fee increases.

A spokesperson for the finance minister said she couldn't provide a response. Instead, the ministry sent a statement outlining several initiatives Ottawa has put in place to support Canadians during the pandemic, such as the CERB program and expanded Employment Insurance.

Williams says she thinks the time has come for government to talk to the banks about their rising fees.

"Someone needs to look at what they're doing and put them in check," she said. "I'm shocked and I'm saddened that they care so little for their customers. That we are just piles of money to them."

She has one week to figure out what to do, before TD's higher fees take effect.

Farmers, water well users in southwestern Ontario deal with arid May
Andrew Lupton 

© Adelaide Farms/Facebook The tomatoes are coming up at Adelaide Farms in Arva, Ont., but co-owner James Roberts says this month's lack of rain has made transplanting the crops more challenging this year.

April showers bring May flowers — as the saying goes — but what if there isn't much rain in May?

For farmer James Roberts, this recent spate of dry spring weather in southwestern Ontario, while not yet at a crisis point, is undoubtedly a cause for concern.

"I would like to see three of four days of rain to be honest with you," said Roberts, who co-owns Adelaide Farms in Arva, just north of London. "If it continues on, it's gonna hurt things. It's getting to the point when we really need some moisture."

Roberts said dry conditions work well for sowing his crops, which include strawberries, sweet corn, potatoes and asparagus. But a weeks-long lack of rain makes transplanting difficult and can delay seed germination.

"It was way too cold early on in the spring, now all of a sudden it's really hot and dry," he said.

With a week left, this May is shaping up to be among the driest on record in the London area.
May could see record low precipitation

Steven Flisfeder, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said while March and April received average amounts of rainfall this spring, May has been drier than many would like.

"May could squeak by as a record low for precipitation, and looking at spring overall, it's not been record-breaking, but certainly low."

Flisfeder said that in a normal May, most parts of southwestern Ontario would see about 90 to 100 millimetres of rain.

Heading into the long weekend, only 10.5 mm of precipitation had fallen. The driest May on record in London happened in 1954, with only 13.8 mm of precipitation for the entire month.

While this May long weekend could bring some rain, Flisfeder said it's unlikely to be enough to ease the concern of some farmers, gardeners and others in need of a decent spring soaking.

"We might get a few showers but it's probably not going to be enough to give them that relief that they're desperately in need of."

With humidity also high, Flisfeder said thunderstorms could deliver some rain to the region this weekend and into the week, though that will likely be localized and short in duration.

With an eye on his crops, Roberts said he would much prefer a steady rain spread over a longer time.
Concerns for water well users

Farmers are not the only ones affected by the recent lack of rain.

Lisa McLeod, co-owner of McLeod water wells in Strathroy, Ont., has been busy with calls from customers concerned about low water levels. She also had a no-water call on Friday.

"We've been hearing from customers looking to improve their current water systems," she said. "People are looking for irrigation systems for their lawns, their crops or to fill up pools."

McLeod recommends that people with concerns about their wells don't delay in calling a contractor for an assessment. She said if dry conditions continue, it could leave local well contractors scrambling to keep up with demand.

She also recommends that landowners with wells keep an eye on the weather and do what they can to curtail use if the dry weather continues.

"We want to encourage people to conserve their water and only use it if they need to, because their well may not sustain as well as it has in past years."

Myanmar: American journalist Danny Fenster detained while trying to fly out of country

By Jonny Hallam and Sharif Paget, CNN Business 1 hour ago

An American journalist working in Myanmar was detained by local authorities Monday, his family and his news organization told CNN.

© courtesy Bryan Fenster 

Danny Fenster, a 37-year-old from Detroit, Michigan, was working for the news organization Frontier Myanmar.

Danny Fenster, 37, was stopped at the Yangon airport as he tried to board a flight out of the country, his brother Bryan Fenster said.


Fenster, a US citizen originally from Detroit, Michigan, works for the news site Frontier Myanmar in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.

"Frontier's managing editor, Danny Fenster, was detained at Yangon International Airport this morning shortly before he was due to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur," the news organization said in a statement.

"We do not know why Danny was detained and have not been able to contact him since this morning. We are concerned for his wellbeing and call for his immediate release. Our priorities right now are to make sure he is safe and to provide him with whatever assistance he needs," the statement said.

The news organization also said it understands Fenster has been transferred to Insein Prison near Yangon. Insein is one of the country's most notorious prisons, known for its deplorable conditions.

Speaking to CNN Monday evening, Bryan Fenster said the family doesn't have much information on his brother's situation.

"I can only assume being a journalist in a country that's run by the military who wants to control the narrative, he was flagged being a journalist when he was at the airport. Can't begin to imagine why it happened," he said. "He was on valid work papers, valid visas, passports, everything. He was voluntarily leaving the country to come visit family, so we can't see what the issue is."

Bryan Fenster said the family are working with elected officials in Michigan and said the US state department is aware of his brother's case.

"We're very hopeful with all the support, we'll be getting him out as soon as possible," he said.

Bryan Fenster said earlier that his brother was flying to the United States to surprise his parents, whom he had not seen for over two years. The family had been concerned about the safety of being a journalist in Myanmar following February's military coup, and felt shocked and worried at the news of his detention, Bryan said, calling it a "nightmare."

A US Department of State official, who used another name for Myanmar, said the agency was monitoring the situation. "We are aware of reports of a US citizen detained in Burma. We take seriously our responsibility to assist US citizens abroad, and are monitoring the situation. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment."

The detention comes almost four months after Myanmar's military seized power in a coup on February 1, overthrowing the democratically-elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and detaining government officials. Junta security forces have brutally suppressed almost daily protests across the country, killing more than 820 people and arresting more than 5,400, according to advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

The junta has also attempted to silence the country's media by revoking independent publishing and broadcast licenses, raiding newspaper offices and targeting journalists for arrest. Among the thousands of people detained since the coup are 85 journalists, including 48 still in detention, according to Reporting Asean.

Fenster is among a number of foreign journalists to be detained in Myanmar since the coup.

Japanese journalist Yuki Kitazumi was arrested in April and charged with spreading false information. He was held in Insein Prison until the junta released him two weeks ago and returned him to Tokyo.

Many detained reporters are charged with crimes under section 505a — a law amended by the military that makes it a crime punishable by up to three years in prison for publishing or circulating comments that "cause fear" or spread "false news."

In a statement, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) said it was not clear whether Fenster had been charged with any offense.

"The arrests of journalists and the violence used by the security forces on anyone caught trying to report or record their actions, constitute an extraordinary attack on freedom of expression in Myanmar, and should be widely condemned," the FCCT statement said.

The detention comes as ousted civilian leader Suu Kyi attended a court hearing Monday and met with her lawyers — her first appearance in person since the coup.

In its nightly news bulletin, Myanmar state TV aired the first images of Suu Kyi since the coup. She was detained in the early hours before the military seized power and had not been seen in public since.

The images showed Suu Kyi in the dock with her hands in her lap and wearing a surgical mask. Beside her sat ousted President Win Myint and the former mayor of the capital Naypyidaw, Myo Aung.

Suu Kyi faces a range of charges, from illegally possessing walkie-talkie radios to violating the official secrets act -- the most serious charge which carries a potential prison sentence of up to 14 years.

Last week, Myanmar's junta-appointed election commission said it would dissolve the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) party because of what it claims was election fraud. The military overthrew the NLD government alleging mass voter discrepancies, though the electoral commission at the time rejected the army's complaints.

According to her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw, Suu Kyi struck a defiant note, saying of the NLD: "Our party grew out of the people so it will exist as long as people support it."