One of the most discussed topics in the news this week was two separate incidents where Black men were shot in what appears to be an excessive use of force by the police. Unfortunately, these types of incidents have been a constant in recent years, and they have led to the creation of Black Lives Matter, "an international activist movement, originating in the African-American community, that campaigns against violence toward black people".

The Guardian has a very interesting section that tracks the total number of people killed in fatal shootings by the police in the US, both in total and per million inhabitants. Using this data, it is clear that Black people proportionally died more frequently in those incidents than any other group in 2015 (and second only to Native Americans in 2016).

If you read the numbers, you will see the movement definitely has a point.

Asylum is defined as the protection granted by a nation to someone who has left their native country as a political refugee, mainly for fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. Due to the raging conflict in Syria, there has been a sharp increase in the number of refugees coming to Europe.

The latest quarterly data report by Eurostat demonstrates this upward trend. Germany and Sweden are the countries that have welcomed the highest number of asylum seekers.