THIRD WORLD USA

This Louisiana Town Is A Bleak Forecast Of America's Future Climate Crisis

LONG READ

 Zahra Hirji

Mon, June 21, 2021

Bridget Boudreaux didn’t know she was saying goodbye to her father last August when an ambulance took him away from her sweltering, hurricane-battered home near Lake Charles, Louisiana. The 72-year-old died alone after medics rushed him from a hospital to nursing homes, trying to find a facility that still had power after Hurricane Laura hit. But Boudreaux’s grief didn’t end there: It took her family another seven months to finally bury her father, as one disaster after another pummeled the riverbank city where she grew up.

With its 150-mile-per-hour sustained winds, Laura was the worst storm to hit the state in a century. Then, in October, Hurricane Delta rammed into Lake Charles as a Category 2 storm. Hurricane Zeta hit later that month. These were followed by a brutal ice storm that froze pipes and wrecked houses in February of this year. In May, historic rains flooded the area with upwards of 19 inches of water in a single day. Now, as the 2021 hurricane season gets underway, Boudreaux’s three-bedroom home — still askew on its foundation, with holes in its roof — is one of thousands in Lake Charles still waiting for a recovery that never happened.

“Right when you think you’re catching your breath, boom,” Boudreaux told BuzzFeed News. “You are constantly getting hit with these natural disasters, and sometimes it feels like you’re living in Revelations.”

Lake Charles exposes a grim, rarely discussed reality of climate change: Back-to-back or overlapping disasters, also known as compounding disasters, are becoming more frequent. And the US government’s largely hands-off approach to disaster recovery means the most vulnerable cities — those already struggling with aging infrastructure, housing shortages, pollution problems, segregation, and poverty — can’t cope.

Far from being an outlier, Lake Charles’s plight is “actually more of a window into the future,” said Jeff Schlegelmilch, director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness.

Lingering heaps of debris render the city vulnerable to more flooding from future rains and storms.

And the city is close to its breaking point. People are exhausted, stressed, and hurting, and many cannot afford to change their circumstances. The crushing housing crisis has left families like Boudreaux's living in unsafe conditions in their broken, mold-infested homes or in tents. Others have moved away. And lingering heaps of debris render the city vulnerable to more flooding from future rains and storms.

“There is a lot of PTSD in this community from what we have gone through,” Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter told BuzzFeed News. “In the past 25 years, Lake Charles had been through 11 federally declared disasters; five of those occurred just in the past year. We can debate what is causing it. But something is happening. You don’t have to be a scientist or a genius to see that.”

As the planet warms and people continue to build homes and businesses in high-risk areas, disasters have become more destructive, more frequent, and more costly. In 2020, the US experienced the most billion-dollar disasters on record. And it’s often low-income families and communities of color that are most impacted and get the least amount of support to build back.

Of the more than 56,000 homes statewide that were damaged by Laura, most were in Calcasieu Parish, home to Lake Charles. It’s one of the most segregated residential communities in the US, and its Black residents have among the highest rates of poverty and unemployment in the country. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many Black communities already clustered near the chemical plants and refineries spewing toxic emissions along the state’s Gulf Coast, the compounding disasters in Lake Charles epitomize how climate change disproportionately impacts those already most at risk.

“Lake Charles will be the poster child for climate racism,” said Kathy Egland, a climate rights activist who chairs the NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Committee.

The parish now faces not only digging itself out of billions in damages, but also strengthening local defenses against future disasters. Though it has already received hundreds of millions from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the state’s request for an extra $3 billion from Congress — an unusual boost reserved for the nation’s worst disasters — remains in limbo.

“Lake Charles will be the poster child for climate racism.”

“What we are trying to do right now is use a water gun to put out a brush fire,” said Hunter, who has been begging leaders in Washington, DC, for help for months. Although President Joe Biden recently visited his city and met with him in person, the mayor is still waiting for the White House and Congress to push through the billions in additional disaster relief.

“We are languishing because of politics,” Hunter said.

The White House and the offices of Louisiana’s two senators have publicly come out in support of extra funding in the past month. But when asked about the holdup, none of them commented.

As the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season gets into full swing, Lake Charles residents worry that another major storm could mean they won’t ever fully recover.

“We are praying that we get a break this year so we can get on our feet and stay standing for a minute,” Boudreaux said. “If we get hit again, we will lose everything.”

More than nine months after Hurricane Laura’s devastating blow to Lake Charles, many of the city’s streets are still lined with homes covered by blue tarps.

“It’s startling, gut-wrenching to see how many people are living under blue tarps. It’s everywhere you look,” said Gary LeBlanc, cofounder of the nonprofit Mercy Chefs, which has provided food in disaster response situations for more than a decade. The group has visited Lake Charles multiple times over the past year. “We’ve been in places that had [Category 5 hurricane] damage, and we’ve never seen this many blue tarps a year after a storm.”

Chastity Bishop is one of those people. After a freak fire in her attic burned a hole in her roof last July, the 41-year-old, her fiancé, and her 9-year-old daughter moved to a rental on the southeastern side of town. When Hurricane Laura tore through the city, it caused severe wind and water damage in both structures. The rest of the year came with even more destruction: In October, Hurricane Delta flooded their rental home, and in February, the historic winter storm froze and burst its pipes. Then, as sheets of rain hit Lake Charles on May 17, Bishop watched in disbelief as water rose from the sidewalk to her porch to the windows before hitting her waist and submerging the house. Her fiancé helped rescue stranded residents, loading them into boats floating down the street, before they made it to higher ground a few miles away.

“It’s hard to explain the smell of flood — you have to live it to understand it.”

After the floods receded, Bishop’s family did everything they could to dry out the house with fans and dehumidifiers. But two weeks later, she and her daughter got sick from the mold. They had to evacuate so that the landlord could rip out all the flooring and walls.

“It’s hard to explain the smell of flood — you have to live it to understand it,” said Bishop, who grew up in Lake Charles. “And in these situations, you either live in a molded house or you come up with some money or find some family to live with.”

The family was able to shell out $1,500 to stay in hotels for a week before running out of money and moving back to their original home, where they’re living in their garage while they fix their tattered roof. They’ve set up a porta-potty, a gas grill, a microwave, and a mini fridge and are sharing a mattress. To bathe, they heat water on a burner. It’s tough, but there are much worse situations around them: Many people are still camping out in their yards and on their patios.

“People who didn’t need help for hurricanes need help now after floods, and no one is really helping,” Bishop said. “You are seeing people just quit, give up. People who are just trying to retire, who had all these plans, what do they do?”

It’s been hard for officials to tally the number of damaged structures or displaced residents in Lake Charles because the numbers keep shifting with each new disaster. Hunter estimates that Laura impacted 95% of the city’s homes and businesses and that 1,000 buildings still remain unoccupied just from that one hurricane. Hurricane Delta and the May floods then battered and rendered another 2,000 houses in the city unlivable.

“What we’re seeing is that the recovery cycle is continuing to get interrupted by disasters, so you can never quite get back up to that previous baseline,” said Columbia’s Schlegelmilch.

The main issue is supply. Building materials are so scarce and expensive that people are driving nearly 150 miles to Houston just to buy lumber. The direst scarcity is housing. Residents in ruined homes, as well as workers who are being hired to fix them, can’t find affordable places to live.

The housing situation “is a serious crisis,” said Tarek Polite, the director of human services for Calcasieu Parish, who is also in charge of recovery support for housing. “The supply that is left has become extremely expensive. Unfortunately, 50% of our low-income housing was damaged, and many apartment complexes are still fighting with insurance companies for payouts.”

“I have over 80 pictures of the damage,” Washington said. “You can’t tell me I can live there.

Lake Charles was already on the brink of an affordable housing shortage before the August hurricane struck, thanks to an industrial boom and an influx of chemical and energy plant workers, Polite explained. The result, he said, is a “new class of homeless individuals” who are toughing it out until they get money from the federal government.

Since Laura hit Lake Charles, the city has lost an estimated 6.7% of its population, according to Mark Tizano, the city’s community development director, though he said the real number is probably much higher. “People are living with relatives, gone out of town, anywhere they can lay their heads,” Tizano said.

For a small percentage of those who stayed, FEMA has helped fill the housing gap. As of mid-June, nearly 2,100 people statewide who were displaced after Laura and Delta were living in federally provided temporary housing.

But that’s not nearly enough, local officials say, and they don’t understand why the city has yet to receive more housing support from the federal government. “This is the first time we’ve seen this type of displacement after storms,” Tizano said. Months after Hurricane Rita slammed into Lake Charles in 2005, he added, “we were already quickly underway with a program to help people with housing.”

Monica Washington says she’s one of the lucky ones. After Laura’s intense winds tore open her condo, Washington, her 32-year-old daughter, and their two dogs and cat spent nearly a year hopping between hotels and sleeping crammed together in their car. She ended up spending about $21,700 on hotel bills, depleting her savings. Finally, they got a break on May 13 when FEMA placed them in one of the coveted temporary housing trailers outside of town.

It took months of back-and-forth with FEMA, and a formal request from Rep. Clay Higgins, to prove her family qualified for temporary housing. “I have over 80 pictures of the damage,” Washington said. “You can’t tell me I can live there. There’s no power.”

There wasn’t much to move into the trailer. Most of what they own has been destroyed, including Washington’s grandmother’s silverware and her daughter’s baby pictures. “Everything we own fits in one drawer,” she said. “Everything I have worked for my entire life, gone.”

To keep supporting her family, Washington, 58, will have to come out of retirement. She’s still fighting with her condo’s rental insurance for a payout and repeatedly emailing and calling FEMA about getting additional aid. “I can feel the anger building up when I think about what that storm did to us,” she said.

A big reason the country’s disaster response system is dysfunctional, experts say, is because the federal government’s role is limited. While FEMA is the country’s expert on emergency response, officials are adamant that their job is only to advise and support state and local governments as they rebuild, not take the lead. Local governments are usually the ones in charge of disaster response and finances.

But if it weren’t for nonprofit and volunteer organizations, many Americans, especially those with low incomes, would not make it through a disaster. These groups are on the ground first and often stay for months, filling a crucial void for survivors by providing food, healthcare, and other support, such as helping people navigate the confusing FEMA claims process.

“The issue with how the US approaches recovery is that it is highly reliant on people using their own resources to pay for their own recovery,” said Samantha Montano, an assistant professor in emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

Insurance is “usually your best bet” to get enough money to rebuild your home, Montano explained. But, she later added, “there can be all kinds of problems actually getting payouts from insurance.”

Since many residents in Lake Charles were uninsured or renting their homes, they are responsible for trying to rebuild their lives using whatever savings they might have. And for those who did have insurance and have applied for assistance from FEMA, there is often a sizable gap between the reimbursement they receive and what it will cost to actually repair their homes.

FEMA also runs the nation’s flood insurance program, a broken system that has racked up billions in debt. Louisianans submitted more than 3,600 flood insurance claims for the three hurricanes combined, resulting in more than $120 million in funds paid by early June. More than 3,200 claims have already been filed in the aftermath of the May storms, roughly half of them coming from Calcasieu Parish, according to FEMA.

But most flood insurance policies do not repay people for hotels, food, or other costs incurred because their home was uninhabitable, meaning they have to pay those thousands of dollars on their own.

And it’s often people of color and those with low incomes who “get aid last,” said LeBlanc from Mercy Chefs. This heartbreaking reality has grown more widespread as climate change–fueled weather events have intensified in the last decade.

After 2020’s historic spate of disasters, a federal advisory panel published a scathing report that found FEMA’s disaster relief programs perpetually shortchange low-income communities and people of color while providing “an additional boost to wealthy homeowners.”

FEMA did not respond to questions from BuzzFeed News about Lake Charles’ slow recovery. “The people of Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish and all of [Southwest] Louisiana have been through a difficult time,” Debra Young, a FEMA spokesperson, told BuzzFeed News in an email. Young added that FEMA has been a constant presence in the area and will “continue to work in Lake Charles to assist survivors by providing grants, loans and housing to those who are eligible.”

While Lake Charles is an extreme example, there are more than 50 towns and cities across the country currently dealing with compounding disasters, according to Mustafa Santiago Ali, vice president of environmental justice, climate, and community revitalization at the National Wildlife Federation.

“People don’t talk about it because they are Black, brown, and Indigenous people,” Ali said. “They are unseen and unheard.” He attributed the problem in part to decades of discriminatory housing policies, such as redlining, that forced people of color into floodplains and other disaster-prone areas.

“Many people ask, ‘Well, why don’t they just leave?’” said Egland, the NAACP climate justice chair. “They can’t. People who are economically challenged don’t have the luxury of choice; they’re bound by their situation.”

Egland, who lives in Gulfport, Mississippi, and survived Hurricane Katrina, said the ripples of climate racism are extensive and long-lasting. One event can impact food supply, agriculture, housing, access to healthcare, and education for years afterward, setting struggling communities even further back.

“You can get hit one time and maintain hope,” said LeBlanc. “You can get hit twice and still have hope and a promise for a new day. But getting hit a fourth time, a fifth time...people get to a place emotionally where it’s hard to find a bright spot. They’ve used them all up.”

For officials in Lake Charles and at the state level, getting Washington to provide enough financial aid and housing support to lift the community out of the shadow of these disasters feels impossible.

Last November, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards sent a letter to former president Donald Trump asking for support, including asking Congress to approve nearly $3 billion to help rebuild homes and create more affordable rental housing. Without this funding, he wrote, “many neighborhoods and communities will not be able to recover.”

“The most disaster-stricken city in the most disastrous year in recent memory.”

The Trump administration did not fulfill his request. He then made a fresh appeal to Biden, writing to him in January to ask Congress to approve the money. The Biden administration appeared to take notice.

“When someone inevitably writes the book of what it was like to live through the past year, they might want to begin the story in Lake Charles,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen following a roundtable with Hunter after the winter storm in late February. Lake Charles, she said, might have the unfortunate distinction of being “the most disaster-stricken city in the most disastrous year in recent memory.”

President Biden visited the city on May 6, using the Calcasieu River Bridge as a backdrop to announce his $2 trillion national infrastructure proposal, which could eventually help Lake Charles and places like it. He also announced $1 billion in additional funding for FEMA specifically to help communities prepare for future disasters. But weeks after his visit, there’s still no word on whether more recovery funds will be given to Lake Charles and the surrounding region.

For Mayor Hunter, the experience has left him feeling like his city is a “pawn” in a nonsensical political battle.

“Washington, DC, is failing American citizens in southwest Louisiana,” he said. “I have a problem with the narrative that it’s everyone else’s problem.”

As the days continue to tick by, bringing the area deeper into hurricane season, Boudreaux and other residents hope their funds and resilience will stretch until more help arrives. If she had a choice, Boudreaux would leave or buy a home, she doesn’t want to leave her family, her hometown. Her children and grandchildren are here. So she’ll continue to do what she and others in Lake Charles have gotten too good at doing: wait.

“We are good people, we work, we pay our bills, we live in a decent home, we go to church and do right by others,” she said. “Just seems everything is against us.” ●

Jun. 21, 2021, at 16:49 PM

More on this

• These Seniors Were Left Behind When Hurricane Laura Hit. No One Claimed Responsibility.Brianna Sacks · Sept. 23, 2020

• Residents Have Been Forced To Shelter In Place After A Chemical Fire Ignited In Hurricane Laura’s WakeEmmanuel Felton · Aug. 27, 2020

• The Texas Winter Storm And Power Outages Killed Hundreds More People Than The State SaysPeter Aldhous · May 26, 2021

• In Jackson, Mississippi, You Can Go Into Debt Trying To Take A ShowerBrianna Sacks · April 7, 2021

“It feels like you’re living in Revelations.”

From left: Scott Boudreaux, Bridget Boudreaux, Dorothy Conner, and Virginia Coberly stand outside of their home, which was damaged during last year’s hurricane season in Westlake, Louisiana. Callaghan O’Hare for BuzzFeed News

 

Young people in Russia's largest cities are finding LGBTQ community despite restrictions

Elizabeth Kuhr and George Itzhak

Tue, June 22, 2021

When Lisa Androshina threw her first lesbian party in Moscow in 2017, she had low expectations.

“We wanted to just gather with our friends and just listen to cool music,” Androshina, 34, told NBC News. “We didn’t plan to do anything serious.”

She booked a bar that she said was often empty and invited her friends and some DJs. After a few parties, her event, called LVBZ, grew in popularity.

Image: Lisa Androshina, right, and the other organizers of the LVBZ lesbian party in Moscow. (Mikhail Vetlov)

Androshina, who lives in Moscow, said about 500 people now attend the quarterly LVBZ nighttime dance, which features DJs from around the world.

Despite the government’s anti-gay restrictions and the country’s conservative views on LGBTQ issues, some lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Russians, like Androshina, are publicly sharing their identities and forming community, particularly in the country’s largest cities. This has spawned a cultural shift, albeit a small and partially underground one.

“We’re not hiding,” Androshina said. “We’re openly speaking about who we are now.”

‘Tired of being targeted’

In 2013, Russia passed a law that bans distributing information on LGBTQ issues and relationships to minors. Known as the “gay propaganda law,” the legislation states that any act or event that authorities deem to promote homosexuality to those under 18 is a finable offense.

The legislation has had a far more sinister impact than just a financial one: After it passed, anti-LGBTQ violence in the country increased, according to a 2018 report from the international rights group Human Rights Watch. A 2019 poll from the Russian LGBT Network, a Russian queer advocacy group, found 56 percent of LGBTQ respondents reported experiencing psychological abuse, and disturbing reports have emerged in recent years of the state-sanctioned detention and torture of gay and bisexual men in Chechnya, a semiautonomous Russian region. Just last year, a survey found that nearly 1 in 5 Russians reported wanting to “eliminate” gay and lesbian people from society.

“I don’t think Russian society is homophobic on its own,” Svetlana Zakharova, a boardmember of the St. Petersburg-based Russian LGBT Network, said. “The law’s inspiring homophobic hatred.”

Zakharova said younger residents are less trusting of the Russian government and are more accepting of LGBTQ people. She said that despite the “gay propaganda law,” more people from across the country are attending public, LGBTQ-focused events.

“Many people are tired of being targeted constantly, and they want to change something,” she said.

Creating ‘beautiful things’ amid fear

News articles, TV segments and documentary films about LGBTQ life in Russia tend to chronicle the challenging, and at times violent, experiences of the queer people that live there. This media narrative, even if accurate, contributes to the difficulty of being LGBTQ in Russia, according to Nikita Andriyanov, who lives in Moscow and co-hosts a podcast, roughly translated in English as “wide open,” about LGBTQ life and culture in Russia.

“It is not easy, and it’s not fun to be a gay person here,” he said.

Andriyanov, however, is among those trying to change the narrative. He said smaller media outlets, like his own, are helping to shape Russia’s emerging LGBTQ community. To avoid fines from the “gay propaganda law,” he said he adds a disclaimer to his podcast stating that it is for people over 18. And if the government were to fine him, despite the disclaimer, he said, people in the LGBTQ community would help support him.

“Once you are ready to accept the fact [that you are LGBTQ] and try to fight it, you become an activist,” Andriyanov said. “[There’s] that extra responsibility.”

Sasha Kazantseva, a 34-year-old lesbian living in Saint Petersburg, is also trying to change the narrative and help build community through media. In 2018, she created a digital magazine about queer Russian culture called O-Zine. She said she wanted to publish the magazine, in part, to counter the news coverage focused on the difficulty of being gay in Russia. The publication features queer art and culture stories, as well as positive articles about people in the community. She said she hopes O-Zine helps empower LGBTQ Russians to feel proud of their identities.

“When you’re a queer person and you live in a very homophobic country,” she said, “it makes it rather hard to just feel connection to other people.”

She’s trying to change that — and she said O-Zine has helped to document the progress that has been made so far. When the publication first launched, Kazantseva said, finding openly LGBTQ people to feature was difficult. Now, she added, Russians living in larger cities are open, and at times eager, to share their stories.

“Paradoxically [the gay propaganda law] helps the process of self-reflection of who we are, how we live as a community, how we can feel proud of who we are,” Kazantseva said.

She said both a drive to fight governmental restrictions and access to social media has slowly fortified the community over the past several years.

Despite collaborating with high-profile Russian creators and celebrities, O-Zine has not been fined under the country’s propaganda law. The magazine has avoided issues because it is independent and not an official media organization, according to Kazantseva.

“When you live under this risk daily, you start to just not care,” said Kazantseva, who like Zakharova said the younger generation is more progressive and open. “We can be arrested the next day, but let’s do what we want to do, and let’s create beautiful things.”

She did, however, note that the situation is drastically different in smaller Russian towns, where she said it’s nearly impossible — if not deadly — for queer people to form community.

“In Moscow and in St. Petersburg, big cities, it’s possible for us to have friendly spaces,” Kazantseva said. “For smaller cities [in] Russia, it’s nearly impossible, because people know each other, and people are less tolerant.”

Andriyanov, who moved from the vast province of Siberia to Moscow after college, agreed.

“It is not really that dangerous for me to be openly gay as it would have been if I grew up, if I stayed in [Siberia],” Andriyanov said. “I don’t think it would have been possible for me to reach that level of openness about my identity.”

He said living in a large city has helped him to accept his sexuality, and added that he would likely be in danger if he stayed in his hometown and lived openly as a gay man.

Creative ‘freedom’

A few films in Russian cinema are also reflecting the shift. The 2019 film “Beanpole” is a drama about a romance between two women in the former Leningrad that is set during World War II. Another 2019 film titled “Outlaw” is widely regarded as the first Russian film to feature a transgender character. “Outlaw” weaves the story of a gay teenager in modern-day Moscow and a transgender dancer in 1980s Soviet Union.

“‘Outlaw’ is about the impossible, about freedom — internal and external,” Ksenia Ratushnaya, the film’s director and screenwriter, said.

Ratushnaya, who lives in Moscow, said she thought the propaganda law would prevent her from screening “Outlaw” in Russia. She was nonetheless able to secure a governmental certificate to show the film in theaters, with the proviso that she edit out curse words and a few seconds of a sex scene involving a priest. That scene was flagged by government censors as breaking another law prohibiting offense against religious people.

Even though Ratushnaya was able to produce and release a film that featured LGBTQ characters without facing legal challenges, she said her film was not shown widely in Russia. Just 10 theaters agreed to screen it to the public, far fewer than most films, according to Ratushnaya. She said she believes many theater operators were simply too afraid to show it.

“I want people to have access to any information that they want,” said Ratushnaya, who added that it’s a battle to navigate the laws and create art. “Freedom, for me, is extremely important.”

‘You can move slowly to the light’

Androshina said the cultural shift she has observed, including the success of her lesbian party, has made her hopeful for the future. Currently, however, she’s not without concerns, ranging from her inability to marry or adopt children to fear for her physical safety as an out lesbian.

Image: LVBZ lesbian party in Moscow (Mikhail Vetlov)

She also noted that because her party, LVBZ, is for people over 21, the event should be legal but added that the propaganda law and its application is not entirely clear to her. She said she is constantly balancing potential threats, including legal ones, and her dedication to creating an open and celebratory space for LGBTQ Russians. But despite all the challenges, she stressed that her experience as an out person in Russia may surprise some inside and outside her country.

“People think that it's too bad, and [we all] really have to hide without doing anything. That's not true,” she said. “We’re actually moving in a good direction.”

“You may have some fears,” she added, about being openly LGBTQ in Russia. “At the same time, there is a tunnel. You can move slowly to the light; you can make an impact.”

Op-Ed: Why Biden's strategy for preventing domestic terrorism could do more harm than good

LIKE CLINTON'S DID AFTER THE OKLAHOMA BOMBING


Harsha Panduranga
Mon, June 21, 2021

Members of the extremist group Boogaloo Boys armed with weapons and flags rally during Lobby Day in Richmond, Va., on Jan. 18. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Even as American cities are working to reduce the use of police in responding to mental health and social crises, the Biden administration is doubling down on an ineffective strategy that further entrenches law enforcement in these same spheres under the umbrella of violence prevention.

President Biden’s just-released National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism features this approach in its plan to combat far-right violence. The Department of Homeland Security recently created a new Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, which will provide funds and support to local law enforcement, community groups and institutions such as universities to carry out such prevention efforts. Among its purposes is to identify people who may become violent and connect them with mental health and social services, often in cooperation with police.

The Homeland Security Department describes this as a “public health” approach, which may sound appealing. But decades of research show that we cannot reliably identify potentially violent people. And trying to do so will invite more police involvement in mental health and social services and bias against the same communities that bear the brunt of far-right violence, as a new report from the Brennan Center for Justice documents.


Many of the behaviors and traits the center identifies as markers of potential violence — being socially alienated, depressed, having a “grievance,” for example — are both vague and common. Treating what are often adverse social conditions as potential police matters hurts efforts to support people struggling with these conditions.

The new center essentially puts a new label on Homeland Security's old Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention program, which Biden had promised to end. That program, in turn, was a rebrand of a war-on-terror-era program called Countering Violent Extremism, which broadly treated Muslim Americans as terrorism risks.

These earlier programs treated actions such as attending a mosque more frequently and being concerned about anti-Muslim discrimination or human rights abuses as reasons for criminal suspicion. While the Biden administration’s disavowal of the heavy-handed targeting that marked the war on terror approach is welcome, the new program’s prevention activities rest on the same flawed foundation and impose many of the same harms.

The Biden program claims its prevention model is evidence-based, but the very studies it cites say that predicting who will engage or attempt to engage in terrorism “is an unrealistic goal.” Instead, government-run studies in this field claim to identify commonalities among those who have carried out violent attacks, labeling them risk factors and indicators that bear on whether a person is going to commit violence.

The main problem is that these signs — such as mental health issues, having trouble at home or in relationships, having a political or personal “grievance” — are shared by millions and hardly serve to separate out potentially violent people from ordinary Americans. The involvement of law enforcement means that individuals with these conditions are unfairly tagged as potential criminals and become at risk of being funneled into the criminal justice system.

Nor does Homeland Security account for how race, religion and ethnicity influence who is tagged as dangerous. This holds true in schools, where discipline falls more heavily on children of color; in policing, where race often dictates who is targeted for enforcement; and in counter-terrorism, where Muslims have borne the brunt of suspicion.

The new program is supposed to work with the Homeland Security Office of Civil Rights and Liberties to ensure rights are protected, but it has not specified any concrete safeguards. The program formally requires those receiving its grants to address privacy and civil rights concerns when applying for funds. But these requirements also existed in the earlier programs, without much effect.

Of course, people experiencing conditions that the program identifies as potential markers of violence could well benefit from mentorship programs or mental health treatment. But linking access to such services to a propensity for violent crime makes it less likely that people will seek out help when they need it.

A better path forward is to wall off security agencies such as Homeland Security from efforts to address the social problems the department frames as threats and leave these issues to people with the right expertise. One blueprint is the recently reintroduced Counseling Not Criminalization in Schools Act, which proposes funds to replace police in schools with social service providers such as teachers, counselors, social workers and nurses and prohibits the use of money for partnerships with law enforcement.

Homeland Security's Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships is unlikely to help prevent violence by mixing health and social services in a law enforcement framework, but it will harm the communities it is trying to protect. The Biden administration should instead invest in badly needed social services through the agencies most equipped to provide them.

Harsha Panduranga is counsel in the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security Program.

Could Fracking Save Colombia’s Oil Industry?


Editor OilPrice.com
Mon, June 21, 2021

Despite being wracked by nationwide anti-government protests the prospects for Colombia’s beaten-down oil industry are improving. Most of the protests and blockades of major roads have been ended allowing onshore drillers to recommence operations. Another important development is the progress of allowing hydraulic fracturing in the strife-torn Andean country. This controversial technique for extracting oil and natural gas has faced strong and lengthy opposition in Colombia. It was touted by crisis-driven president Ivan Duque during late-2018 as a means of resolving a critical problem facing Colombia’s oil-dependent economy, its lack of proven oil and natural gas reserves. There have been no major hydrocarbon discoveries in Colombia since 2009. Energy ministry data shows (Spanish) that at the end of 2020 proved reserves were 1.8 billion barrels, an 11% reduction compared to 2019, which is sufficient to support six years at the current rate of production, and just under 3 trillion cubic feet of gas with a production life of almost eight years. The direness of the situation is underscored by the petroleum industry is responsible, during 2020, for nearly a fifth of government income, 3% of gross domestic product, and 28% of exports by value. Those numbers highlight just how important it is for the national government in Bogota to boost Colombia’s economically crucial hydrocarbon reserves if it is to head off a major economic crisis.

Fracking has long been held as a solution with it estimated that Colombia holds up to seven billion barrels of recoverable shale oil and 30 trillion cubic feet of shale gas. If those vast hydrocarbon resources can be successfully accessed, they will significantly boost Colombia’s hydrocarbon reserves and production life, averting a fiscal crisis and giving the economy a healthy boost. Nonetheless, there has been significant opposition to fracking in Colombia. In 2018, the country’s highest administrative court the Council of State established a moratorium against fracking. That was upheld in 2019, but the tribunal found that fracking projects were not banned. In the latest development, a bill aiming to ban fracking and the exploitation of unconventional oil and natural gas deposits in Colombia was effectively sunk (Spanish). Only half of the representatives supporting the bill arrived last Saturday to debate its approval and a vote made last week ended with the bill being delayed. This effectively stymies the implementation of the bill, indicating that it will not be approved by congress, seeing the end of a major hurdle to allowing fracking in Colombia. Earlier this year, the head of the National Hydrocarbon Agency (ANH – Spanish initials), Armando Zamora, stated that he believed the moratorium would be lifted in 2022 once comprehensive fracking regulations had been established.

Fracking pilots have been approved and are underway in Colombia’s Middle Magdalena Valley Basin. It is the La Luna geological formation that is being targeted in the basin.

EIA


Source: U.S. EIA.

La Luna has been compared to the prolific Eagle Ford shale. In 2013 the ANH released survey data to support its claim that the geological formation’s rock quality is similar to and in some cases better than many North American shale plays. Some sources believe that it could hold hydrocarbon resources of up to 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent, making it a priority target for Colombia’s energy ministry and hydrocarbon regulator.

Related: U.S. Government Considers Making Ransom Payments Illegal

Colombia’s national oil company Ecopetrol was awarded approval last November for the Kale project near the municipality of Puerto Wilches in the Middle Magdalena Valley Basin.

Ecopetrol

Source: Ecopetrol.

The state-controlled energy major expects to invest $80 million to bring the operation online, with Ecopetrol currently establishing the monitoring plan and gaining community approvals. In early April 2021 global energy supermajor ExxonMobil was awarded the only contract from the second unconventional round. Exxon was awarded the rights to the Platero project, also near Puerto Wilches in the Middle Magdalena Valley. The global energy supermajor has committed to investing $53 million in developing the asset with a seven percent local content requirement. The project is focused on exploring the unconventional geological formations of the VMM-37 Block which is 70% controlled by Exxon as the operator, with the remaining 30% held by Canadian oil junior Sintana Energy.

VMM-37 Block Middle Magdalena Valley Basin

Manati

Source: Sintana Energy.

Exxon drilled the A3 Manati Blanco well in 2015 on the block but it was never tested, and operations were suspended pending an environmental permit being awarded. That was blocked because of the controversy surrounding the introduction of fracking in Colombia and the eventual moratorium imposed on the practice.

While the latest developments bode well for the future of fracking in Colombia, the ANH is finding it difficult to attract the desired level of interest from foreign energy companies in unconventional oil exploration and production. Exxon submitted the only valid bid during the ANH’s April 2021 round, with the two other participants Drummond and Ecopetrol declining to make offers. The uncertainty surrounding the future of fracking in Colombia, coupled with an escalating security crisis and recent nationwide anti-government protests which forced onshore energy companies to shutter production, is weighing on investor sentiment. While most of the oil production shut-in by the anti-government protests and related blockades has been brought back online, considerable political turmoil remains. There are long-standing grievances among various civil society groups which were amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic that Bogota has failed to address. Roadblocks, oilfield invasions, and community protests against Colombia’s economically vital hydrocarbon sector remain ever-present threats, particularly with the oil industry’s social license deteriorating in many communities where it operates.

The considerable uncertainty surrounding the future of fracking and Colombia’s oil industry is being magnified by former leftist presidential candidate and senator Gustavo Petro taking a massive lead in the polls. Those numbers indicate that at this time he will win the 2022 presidential elections. Petro’s 2018 candidacy and subsequent lead in the polls prior to the May 2018 electoral round unnerved financial markets, the oil industries, and mining industries, notably because he campaigned (Spanish) on a platform of reducing Colombia’s dependence on oil as well as opposing fracking. It was Ivan Duque’s eventual victory that saw much of that nervousness dissipate. The sharp increase in political turmoil, Bogota’s inability to reactivate the economy, and heightened insecurity are all weighing on the outlook for fracking in Colombia.

By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com

BP is planning to drill for fossil gas on edge of world’s largest cold-water coral reef


Daisy Dunne
Tue, June 22, 2021

Artist’s impression of Greater Tortue Ahmeyim gas project in west Africa (BP)

BP is planning to drill for fossil gas on the edge of the world’s largest cold-water coral reef – raising the risk of biodiversity loss, further global heating and toxic fuel spills.

The British oil giant has begun construction work on a fossil fuel project close by to the 580km-long coral ecosystem off the coast of west Africa, which is in an area crucial for migrating waterbirds, as well as threatened sharks, turtles and whales, according to an investigation by Unearthed and SourceMaterial shared with The Independent.

The project is the “first step” in a series of developments in the region that, if approved, aim to produce around 40 trillion cubic feet of gas over the next 30 years, according to an independent estimate from Rystad Energy, a research firm.

When burned, this amount of gas would produce 2.2 billion tonnes of CO2 – nearly twice the annual energy emissions of the entire African continent. In global terms, it equates to between 0.3 and 1 per cent of the remaining global “carbon budget” left to keep the global temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

A BP spokesperson said they were unable to comment on Rystad’s projection, and declined to provide their own forecast.

BP has previously promised to slash its emissions to net zero by 2050 and to cut its oil and gas production by 40 per cent within a decade. The oil firm is also a partner of Prince Charles’s Terra Carta initiative, which aims to “bring prosperity into harmony with nature”.

Last month, a major assessment from the world’s energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency, said there can be no further fossil fuel expansion in any country beyond 2021 if global climate goals are to be met.

Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa, a think tank based in Nairobi, Kenya, described further fossil fuel development as a “a major threat to Africa’s food security, water security and public health”.

Any future oil or gas drilling will “ultimately undermine our livelihoods and development,” he told The Independent.

“We can’t excuse a company like BP, at a time when it seems to be taking climate change more seriously, simultaneously bankrolling a project that may end up having a big impact on Africa’s carbon footprint and future.”

BP’s fossil gas development threatens an expansive cold-water coral reef off the coast of Mauritania and Senegal (TL, Sven Loven Centre, Uni Gothenburg)

The Independent’s Stop Fuelling the Climate Crisis campaign is shining a light on UK support for fossil fuels ahead of Cop26, a major climate summit being held in Glasgow in November.

BP’s Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project will develop a new gas field 2.7km below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Senegal and Mauritania. Such a deep drilling project has never been attempted before in Africa, but previous research shows deep sea gas production can cause long-lasting damage to fragile ecosystems such as coral reefs.

The first 20-year phase of the project has already been approved, with drilling expected to produce gas in two years’ time. It is one of BP’s three developments in the pipeline for the west Africa region, where it hopes to operate for at least 30 years if it is able to obtain approval.

An environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) carried out for the project, seen by The Independent, Unearthed and SourceMaterial, states that an eruption of a well used in the production process could lead to a spill of condensate, a liquid byproduct of natural gas.

Though it says the chances of a spill occurring are “extremely rare”, it warns that any such event could prove lethal or damaging to the unique ecosystems surrounding the project site, according to the assessment.

The area chosen for the project is close to key sites along the east Atlantic flyway, a major migration route for millions of birds travelling between the bottom of Africa and the Arctic. Birds using the route include Eurasian spoonbills, grey plovers and red knots.

Eurasian spoonbills are one of many species that travel along the east Atlantic flyway (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The gas project is also just 5km away from Diawling National Park, which hosts 250 different bird species as well as monkeys, warthogs and monitor lizards. It is a similar distance away from the marine protected area of Saint-Louis, a key site for local fishing and feeding whales and dolphins.

Without careful management, BP’s construction and drilling operations could threaten these important wildlife hotspots and the livelihoods of local fishing communities, Sandra Kloff, a consultant marine biologist who has worked in the region for 25 years, told The Independent.

She added that the wildlife in the region already faces large threats from overfishing by international companies.

“Since the 1980s, it has been a total wild west for biodiversity off this northwest African coast despite scientific proof that this region is the most important feeding area for charismatic wildlife in the Atlantic Ocean – and in spite of the fact that these waters are home to the longest cold water coral mounds,” she told The Independent.

BP has previously pledged to reduce harm to biodiversity by committing to not establishing new oil and gas operations in Unesco world heritage sites or in nature reserves that meet a set of specific criteria. Its Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project does not contravene these rules.

Awa Traore, an oceans campaigner at Greenpeace Africa, said BP’s actions amounted to “greenwashing”.

“More fossil fuel production is only going to expose communities to more harm, undermining the renewable energy investment which can effectively lift millions of people out of poverty,” she told The Independent.

“By adopting renewable energy instead of fossil fuels, African countries have the opportunity to leapfrog dirty energy to meet their energy security needs, with massive potential benefits for the population.”

A BP spokesperson said: “We want to help conserve the marine ecosystem in Mauritania and Senegal and the project’s environment and social impact assessment was approved by the governments and regulators of both Mauritania and Senegal when the project was sanctioned for development.”

The spokesperson added that BP was currently developing an additional biodiversity action plan for the project alongside “scientists and other stakeholders”.

“This will integrate the latest scientific data and allow us to identify and implement appropriate biodiversity-related mitigation and management measures for the project,” the spokesperson said.

“We are working to set up an independent scientific panel of national and international scientists for peer review of our plans.”

They added that emissions from the first phase of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project will be included in BP’s climate targets.

“Emissions from any further projects that were approved and developed would also be included as and when they began operation,” the spokesperson said.

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UNESCO: Great Barrier Reef should be listed as 'in danger'

Tue, June 22, 2021

The Great Barrier Reef has held World Heritage status since 1981

Australia's government has lashed out after a United Nations report claimed it had not done enough to protect the Great Barrier Reef from climate change.

UN body Unesco said the reef should be put on a list of World Heritage Sites that are "in danger" due to the damage it has suffered.

Key targets on improving water quality had not been met, it said.


Environment minister Sussan Ley said UN experts had reneged on past assurances.

She confirmed that Australia planned to challenge the listing, which would take place at a meeting next month, saying: "Clearly there were politics behind it; clearly those politics have subverted a proper process."

The World Heritage Committee is a 21-nation group chaired by China, which has had a vexed diplomatic relationship with Canberra in recent years.

"Climate change is the single biggest threat to all of the world's reef ecosystems... and there are 83 natural World Heritage properties facing climate change threats so it's not fair to simply single out Australia," said Ms Ley.

Environmental groups say the UN's decision highlights Australia's weak climate action, however.

"The recommendation from Unesco is clear and unequivocal that the Australian government is not doing enough to protect our greatest natural asset, especially on climate change," said Richard Leck, Head of Oceans for the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia.

The latest row is part of an ongoing dispute between Unesco and Australia over the status of the iconic site.

The reef, stretching for 2,300km (1,400 miles) off Australia's north-east coast, gained World Heritage ranking in 1981 for its "enormous scientific and intrinsic importance".

After Unesco first debated its "in danger" status in 2017, Canberra committed more than A$3 billion (£1.bn; $2.2bn) to improving the reef's health.

However, several bleaching events on the reef in the past five years have caused widespread loss of coral.

Great Barrier Reef suffers another mass bleaching

Racing to save one of the great wonders of nature

Scientists say the main reason is rising sea temperatures as a result of global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

In 2019, Australia's own reef authority downgraded the reef's condition from poor to very poor in its five-year update.

But Australia remains reluctant to commit to stronger climate action, such as by signing up to a net zero emissions target by 2050.

The country, a large exporter of coal and gas, has not updated its climate goals since 2015. Its current emissions reduction target is 26-28% of 2005 levels by 2030.

Analysis box by Shaimaa Khalil, Australia correspondent

These have been a tough few months for Australia and its climate change policy.

International pressure has been mounting on Scott Morrison's government to pledge net zero emissions by 2050 and the prime minister has time and time again refused to commit - including as recently as last week at the G7 meeting in the UK.

In his address to US President Joe Biden's virtual climate conference with global leaders in April, the prime minister said the country will "get there as soon as we possibly can," adding that "for Australia, it is not a question of if, or even by when, for net-zero but, importantly, how".

That in itself is at the heart of the problem. The "when" is as crucial as the "how" when it comes to climate change.

Scientists and global leaders say Australia is not doing enough or going fast enough.

The Great Barrier Reef row between Unesco and the Australian government is not new, but it will be quite embarrassing if the country's World Heritage Site is downgraded to the "in danger" list.

It's another reminder that if Australia does not get serious about tackling climate change with clear and decisive measures, this will affect its standing in the world, not just diplomatically and economically but culturally too.

Map of Great Barrier Reef

If the reef is downgraded, it will be the first time a natural World Heritage Site has been placed on the "in danger" list primarily due to impacts of climate change.

Listing a site as "in danger" can help address threats by, for example, unlocking access to funds or publicity.

But the recommendation could affect a major tourism destination that creates thousands of jobs in Australia and was worth A$6.4bn prior to the pandemic.

Australia rejects U.N. climate warning over Great Barrier Reef status

Adela Suliman
Tue, June 22, 2021

The Great Barrier Reef could have its prestigious World Heritage status downgraded after a report from the United Nations said Australia wasn't doing enough to protect it from the effects of climate change.

Australia, which attracts millions of snorkeling tourists and beachgoers each year, vowed on Tuesday to fight any change of status that could hurt its travel industry or see the U.N. step in to take tougher measures to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions.

The U.N. World Heritage Committee's draft report on Monday found that there was "no possible doubt" that the network of colorful corals off Australia's northeast coast was "facing ascertained danger" due to climate change.


The committee proposed the Great Barrier Reef be added to UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger, a move that could create a monitoring role for UNESCO to put in place "corrective measures" to reduce emissions, which it said are harming the reef and its marine life. The report said such measures would take into account the fact that Australia "on its own cannot address the threats of climate change."

Image: Australia said Tuesday, June 22, 2021, it will fight a recommendation for the Great Barrier Reef to be listed as in danger of losing its World Heritage values due to climate change (Kyodo News / AP)

Any downgrade of the reef's World Heritage status could also reduce tourism revenue that the natural wonder generates and shake Australians' national pride, along with confidence in their government's ability to care for the coral reef ecosystem.

Australia's environment minister Sussan Ley said on Tuesday the country would fight the listing and that she and foreign minister Marise Payne had spoken to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay to express their government's "strong disappointment" and "bewilderment" at the proposal.

"This is a complete subversion of normal process," Ley said. "The reef is an icon internationally and we are here to fight for the reef and we are here to challenge the decision."

Ley said that although she recognized the threat of climate change to the reef, Australia would oppose the listing.

"This decision was flawed. Clearly there were politics behind it," she told reporters.

However, environmentalists welcomed the U.N. body's draft decision.

"The recommendation from UNESCO is clear and unequivocal that the Australian government is not doing enough to protect our greatest natural asset," Richard Leck, head of oceans for the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia said in a statement.

The listing would also serve as a wake-up call for the country, he added.

"The prospect of losing the World Heritage status of our reef will be a huge shock for many Australians, but it is a powerful message that our government needs to urgently lift its ambition."

Environmental group Greenpeace Australia Pacific also said the government had to work harder to give the reef a "fighting chance" and take its role as an "environmental custodian seriously," said spokesperson Martin Zavan.

"The UNESCO warning could not be any clearer, the Great Barrier Reef is in danger," Zavan said in a statement. "The situation for the reef could easily go from bad to disastrous."

The world's most extensive coral reef ecosystem — a network of 2,500 reefs covering 348,000 square kilometers — has been World Heritage-listed since 1981 and is held in awe by visitors for its dazzling coral and multicolored fish.

But scientists have repeatedly warned that its health is under increasing threat from climate change and rising ocean temperatures.

The U.N. report found that the site had suffered significantly from coral bleaching and mortality caused by unusually warm ocean temperatures in 2016, 2017 and last year.

"The long-term outlook for the ecosystem of the property has further deteriorated from poor to very poor," the draft report said, adding that the deterioration "has been more rapid and widespread than was previously evident."

The final decision, based on the report's recommendations, will be made in July by the World Heritage Committee and could see the reef added to the list of 53 other sites deemed in danger, in country's such as Afghanistan and Peru.

RIP

Joanne Linville, who played the Romulan commander in a memorable 1968 Star Trek episode and had scores of other screen credits, died Sunday. She was 93. CAA made the announcement but did not disclose a cause of death.


Linville began racking up TV guest roles in the mid-1950s, appearing on such series of the era as Studio One, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Kraft Theatre and Playhouse 90. She continued to guest on drama series throughout the ’60s, including such classics as Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The F.B.I., Route 66, Ben Casey, I Spy and a two-part Hawaii Five-0.

Of her work in that era, she might be most recognizable as Lavinia Gordon, the owner of a ruined Southern mansion in the Civil War-themed 1961 Twilight Zone episode titled “The Passersby,” which also starred James Gregory.

But despite her prolific active career from the mid-’50s to the late-’80s, and included a few latter-day roles, Linville is best remembered for her role in a 1968 episode of the original Star Trek. “The Enterprise Incident” is one of the few times Leonard Nimoy’s Spock character Spock romanced a woman. Linville played a powerful Romulan commander who is drawn to and ultimately seduced by the Vulcan’s charms. She discovers too late that Spock’s attentions are a ruse so that Captain Kirk can steal the fabled Romulan cloaking device, which renders ships invisible.

Linville continued to work steadily in TV throughout the 1970s and ’80s. While never a series regular, she appeared on some of those decades’ most popular shows: Columbo, Kojak, Charlie’s Angels, CHiPs, Dynasty and L.A. Law.

Born Beverly Joanne Linville on January 15, 1928, in Bakersfield, CA, she grew up in Venice, CA. The actress also had some film roles during her long career including A Star Is Born (1976), Scorpio (1973) and The Seduction (1982).

During the 1980s, she and her teacher Stella Adler started an acting conservancy under the latter’s name, and Linville also authored the 2011 book Seven Steps to an Acting Craft.

Linville was married to On Golden Pond director Mark Rydell from 1962-73 and was the great-grandmother of actress Billie Lourd and Austen Rydell’s son, Kingston. Along with the four of them, she is survived by her children Christopher and Amy, and grandchildren Ruby and Ginger.

Tom Tapp contributed to this report.

WHY  WORKERS NEED UNIONS

Exxon Prepares to Cull U.S. White-Collar Ranks by as Much as 10%



Joe Carroll and Kevin Crowley
Tue, June 22, 2021, 

(Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. is preparing to reduce headcount at its U.S. offices by between 5% and 10% annually for the next three to five years by using its performance-evaluation system to suss out low performers, according to people familiar with the matter.

The cuts will target the lowest-rated employees relative to peers, and for that reason will not be characterized as layoffs, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. While such workers are typically put on a so-called performance improvement plan, many are expected to eventually leave on their own. This year’s evaluation is happening now but affected employees have not yet been notified, the people said.

“Our annual performance assessment process has been occurring over the last several months,” Exxon spokesman Casey Norton said in an email. “Where employees are not contributing to their highest ability, they may need to participate in an improvement plan. This is an annual process which has been in place for many years, and it is meant to improve performance. This process is unrelated to workforce reduction plans.”

The plan is separate from Exxon’s announcement last year that it will cut 14,000 jobs worldwide by 2022, and it would extend reductions well beyond that original time frame. It’s a tumultuous time for Exxon, which is still grappling with the fallout from last month’s annual meeting, when shareholders rebuffed top management and replaced a quarter of the company’s board over climate and financial concerns.

Exxon had 72,000 employees globally at the end of last year, of which 40% worked in the U.S., according to a company filing.

White-Collar Jobs

Several high-profile traders have also left in the last few weeks. While the performance-review process mostly applies to white-collar jobs such in areas such as engineering, finance and project management, there’s no suggestion the trading departures were related to the review program.

Exxon’s other cost-cutting initiatives have included suspending bonuses and halting employee-contribution matches to 401k savings plans as the pandemic crushed demand for crude, saddling the company with a record annual loss.

International crude prices have surged 44% this year to almost $75 a barrel, improving Exxon’s financial position markedly. Still, the supermajor has some way to go to pay down debts accumulated during 2020’s market collapse. A smaller and more efficient workforce is key to further improvements.

Exxon achieved $3 billion of annual “structural cost reductions” in 2020 and will continue to make savings through 2023, Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said at the annual meeting in May.

“We’ve got additional work to continue to take advantage of the new organization and find opportunities to reduce our costs,” Woods said.

Exxon’s shares rose 3.6% to $62.59 at the close in New York trading Monday amid a broad rally in energy stocks on stronger oil prices.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

USA

Since 9/11, military suicides dwarf the number of soldiers killed in combat

Courtney Kube
Mon, June 21, 2021

Since 9/11, four times as many U.S. service members and veterans have died by suicide than have been killed in combat, according to a new report.

The research, compiled by the Costs of War Project at Brown University, found an estimated 30,177 active duty personnel and veterans who have served in the military since 9/11 have died by suicide, compared with 7,057 killed in post 9/11 military operations. The figures include all service members, not just those who served in combat during that time.

The majority of the deaths are among veterans who account for an estimated 22,261 of the suicides during that period.

“The trend is deeply alarming,” the report says. “The increasing rates of suicide for both veterans and active duty personnel are outpacing those of the general population, marking a significant shift.”

The Department of Veterans Affairs releases information on deaths by suicide, but it does not distinguish by conflict. The report’s author, Thomas “Ben” Suitt III, took the VA data and estimated the total number of veteran suicides based on their ages and other factors.

A total of 5,116 active duty service members have died by suicide since Sept. 11, 2001, the report says. Figures for the National Guard and Reserves are not available for the first 10 years, but from 2011 to 2020 an estimated 1,193 National Guard and 1,607 Reservists have died by suicide.

In an interview, Suitt said the number 30,177 is likely well below the actual number of suicides for active duty and veterans. He believes one of the reasons the numbers continue to climb is indifference by the American public.

“For veterans to come home to an uncaring civilian population or to an uncaring public, that must be devastating,” Suitt said.

Other factors include the increase of improvised explosive devices causing more traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress and other medical and emotional factors connected to suicidal ideation, Suitt said.

Suitt said his research found that some service members may not get the medical treatment they need, making them more vulnerable to suicidal behavior.

“There was a sense that an active service member would rather lie on a screening to be able to stay in the military,” he said.

“If they have a traumatic brain injury but no other physical injuries, they downplay the injuries to stay in their career.”

His research found that some service members felt they would lose their sense of identity by being discharged early for a medical issue and they “would do anything to avoid leaving the military.”

A Defense Department spokesperson said it takes a "comprehensive approach" to suicide prevention.

"Every death by suicide is a tragedy," the spokesperson said. "Over time, suicide deaths have increased in the broader U.S. general population. Our service members are not immune to trends that occur in society. Two of the most at-risk groups for suicide in the U.S. are males and younger individuals, and the military is heavily comprised of young males."

“Veteran suicide remains a challenging and heartbreaking issue that VA is fully committed to working in partnership with federal, tribal, state, and local government to find innovative ways to reduce suicides and deliver expedient care to those in need,” said VA press secretary Terrence Hayes.

Suitt expressed regret that some Americans don’t know that men and women are still serving in post 9/11 conflicts.

“The public needs to care. They really, really should,” he said.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.