- Protests in NYC unfold peacefully after mayor rescinds 8pm curfew
- Barr denies police are systemically racist as protests sweep US
- Peaceful protests sweep US as calls for racial justice reach new heights
- A week that shook a nation: power of protests leaves Trump exposed
- ‘Tearing apart America’: How friends and foes now view Trump’s rule
- ‘George Floyd happens every day’: police killings the media forgot
The NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks led an estimated crowd of 7,500 supporters on what the team described as a public protest march through the city’s downtown area on Sunday.
.@Bucks Sterling Brown, bucks players and owners marching for justice #georgefloydpic.twitter.com/o0opvf1caZ
Related: Sterling Brown and the tasing of the black American dream | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti has announced that national guard troops will be pulled out of the California cities where they’ve been deployed for a week.
“The California National Guard is departing Los Angeles this evening,” Garcetti said in a statement on Sunday. “A small number of units will be stationed nearby until June 10 to provide emergency support if needed. I’m proud that our city has been peaceful this week – and that our residents are leading a powerful movement to make Los Angeles more just, equitable, and fair for Black Angelenos, communities of color, and all of our workers, youth, and families.”
A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis city council has announced its intent to dismantle the city’s police department and invest in community-led public safety, a move that would mark the first concrete victory in the mounting nationwide movement to defund law enforcement agencies in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd.
Nine of the council’s 12 members announced their pledge to create a new system of public safety before hundreds of demonstrators at a rally at Powderhorn Park in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon.
“This council is going to dismantle this police department,” Jeremiah Ellison (@jeremiah4north) said today of the @MinneapolisPD at a massive community meeting at Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis. pic.twitter.com/UkhKOU22hO
Utah senator Mitt Romney is among the roughly 1,000 demonstrators marching in a faith-based protest to the White House in Washington on Sunday afternoon.
Asked by a Washington Post reporter why he chose to join the movement, Romney said: “Finding a way to end injustice and brutality and to make sure people understand that black lives matter.”
.@MittRomney is marching with a group of nearly 1,000 Christians to the White House. Here he is on video saying why he’s walking: “... to make sure that people understand that Black Lives Matter” https://t.co/KCxJNchCMspic.twitter.com/Za0Am2WL8g
The New York Times has announced editorial page editor James Bennet has resigned amid outrage over an op-ed by a Republican senator who called for using federal troops to quell protests outrage.
The opinion piece by Arkansas lawmaker Tom Cotton drew widespread criticism from when it was first published late Wednesday afternoon, including from Times staff, that only grew when it was revealed that Bennet had not read the piece before publication.
The Rev Jesse Jackson spoke at a worship service on Sunday at St Stephen Church in Louisville, the Kentucky city where Breonna Taylor was shot at least eight times in her home after a brief confrontation with police who were there to serve a warrant in mid-March.
”When you kill, you should be arrested and charged,” Jackson said. ”There’s a George Floyd in every town. ... There’s a Breonna in this town, Laquan McDonald in Chicago, Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, the world is revolting for justice.”
Related: Jesse Jackson: 'The gated community does not protect you from the pandemic'
A crowd of about 1,600 demonstrators have gathered outside Trump International Hotel and Tower at Columbus Circle in midtown Manhattan, chanting “Throw him out!” and “No justice, no peace!”
Protestors have gathered in front of Trump International Hotel, chanting “Throw him out!” pic.twitter.com/FpboS1HTLD
The Associated Press reports a white police officer has been charged with assault after using a stun gun on a black man in Virginia.
Fairfax County police Officer Tyler Timberlake was trying to get the man into an ambulance to go to a detox center on Friday, according to body camera video shown at a news conference late on Saturday.
Our correspondents have looked at how the world has reacted to the protests in the US– and it doesn’t look like the president has improved his global standing over the last few weeks:
The events of the past week in America have had reverberations around the world. For years, part of the daily work of the US state department was to issue denunciations of police brutality, suppression of dissent, and instability in far-flung corners of the globe.
Related: 'Trump is tearing apart America': how the world sees the US protests
The army secretary, Ryan McCarthy, said the Pentagon did not want to deploy troops on the streets of Washington DC last week as protesters gathered on the streets. He said the Insurrection Act, which would have allowed Donald Trump, to deploy active military members in the protests was “heavily discussed” by the administration.
“[The soldiers] were on the outskirts cause we didn’t want to do it. The department of defense didn’t want to do it because we knew once we went to that escalation, it’s very very difficult,” McCarthy told reporters on Sunday. “We did everything we could to not cross that line.”
Related: Trump takes note as the far right lobbies for violent crackdown on peaceful protests
Thousands of people have attended an anti-racism protest in Milan. Children born of foreign parents in Italy are not automatically eligible for citizenship until they reach 18 after continuously living in the country, and some protesters wanted to bring attention to legal reform on the question. There have been complaints that the children of foreigners aren’t considered Italians even though they have been born and raised in the country.
The Guardian has published an editorial on the protests that have spread across the US – and the world – in the weeks since George Floyd’s killing by police.
George Floyd’s name is now known around the globe; his death has sparked protests from Berlin to Mexico City. The extraordinary cruelty of his killing has shocked the world. But his death has resonated so widely not because it was exceptional, but because it was not. Not exceptional in the US, where the toll of African Americans who have died at police hands is long and shameful. And not, unfortunately, exceptional elsewhere.
Related: The Guardian view on Black Lives Matter worldwide: a common cause | Editorial
New York governor Andrew Cuomo said during his daily press briefing on Sunday that poor management was to blame for incidents of looting over the last week in New York City.
“The looting had nothing to do with protesting. Protesting is different,” Cuomo said. “You have looting, and you have protesting. You have apples, you have oranges. They’re different. Well the night of looting was the fault of the police officers? No, it wasn’t the fault of the protesters and it wasn’t the fault of the police officers, I said it was the management and deployment of the police officers.”
Chicago has now lifted its curfew.
The curfew is lifted effective immediately. I know this time in our city and our country has been difficult for us all, and I’m grateful to our residents for working together to navigate this challenging time.
Crowds are beginning to gather in Washington DC for another day of protests. Meanwhile, the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said there had been no arrests during Saturday’s protests in DC.
Richard Luscombe has news of Joe Biden’s plans for the week ...
When Donald Trump spoke to George Floyd’s brother Philonise last month, ostensibly to express his sympathies, it didn’t go well.
Ending curfew a first step in long journey, say rights advocates.
Civil rights advocates in New York City called Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to lift the 8 pm curfew “a necessary step” in a “long journey” stopping police violence, while insisting far more needed to be done for true reform.
After immense pressure from protesters and the threat of a lawsuit we had prepared to file today, Mayor de Blasio has lifted New York City’s curfew, a blunt tool of state-sanctioned oppression used to silence legitimate protest. The City’s focus should not be on silencing protest and resistance, but on ending anti-Black police violence and impunity,” Black and LGBTQ-headed organizations, protesters, legal observers, and medical workers said in a joint statement. “Eliminating the curfew was a necessary step in stopping the cycle of police violence and silencing the mass of voices demanding recognition and dignity for Black Lives. No longer will the NYPD be able to use curfew enforcement as justification for their attacks and arrests on protesters, essential workers, journalists, and bystanders.”
George Floyd’s body has arrived in Houston ahead of a memorial service and burial in the coming days.
Floyd, who was killed by police in Minnesota last week, spent most of his life in Houston where he had been a high-school football star. There will be a public viewing and memorial service in Houston on Monday before he is buried on Tuesday next to his mother, Larcenia Floyd. A memorial service for family was held on Saturday near his birthplace in North Carolina.
The Episcopal bishop of Washington DC, Mariann Budde, has renewed her criticism of Donald Trump in a sermon on Sunday. Budde said she was “outraged” last week when law enforcement used pepper spray and rubber bullets to clear a crowd of peaceful protesters from near the White House so the president could attend a photo opportunity at a local church.
Related: Bishop 'outraged' over Trump's church photo op during George Floyd protests
US attorney general Bill Barr says he does not believe there is systemic racism within US law enforcement. And yet we hear about incidents like the one below every day.
Officials in Providence, Rhode Island, have apologised to a black firefighter after he said police drew guns on him as he sat in a car outside his fire station last week.
Here's the full video of Providence firefighter Terrell Paci's emotional interview with @CarolineGoggin live on @wpri12 earlier tonight. (in two parts because of Twitter's time limit) pic.twitter.com/VKNAuNUygc
Thousands of people have attended a protest in Brussels that has taken in Belgium’s colonial past. Members of the crowd chanted “murderer” as protesters climbed a statue of King Leopold II and unfurled the the flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A crowd has climbed onto the statue of colonial King Léopold II in #Brussels chanting “murderer” and waving the flag of the Democratic Republic of Congo where his atrocities took place. #DRC#BlackLivesMatterpic.twitter.com/DIH9MGu39M
Related: Belgium begins to face brutal colonial legacy of Leopold II
Alicia Garza, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter, has appeared on NBC’s Meet The Press to discuss calls to defund the police.
She said that such calls do not mean abolishing law enforcement but rather investing money in other areas.
Related: Banksy supports Black Lives Matter with latest artwork
Philadelphia has become the latest city to lift its curfew:
There will be no curfew or traffic restrictions in place today.
If you go out to participate in demonstrations, follow @PhilaOEM for important updates and information.
And remember to wear masks, keep distance from others if possible, and stay hydrated.
The number of deaths from Covid-19 in America has reached 109,846, with confirmed cases now numbering 1,922,054, Johns Hopkins University data reveal.
New York City, the center of America’s Covid-19 outbreak, has suffered at least 21,294 deaths and 211,274 cases, according to the New York Times.
Black Lives Matters protesters in Bristol have pulled down a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston.
Demonstrators in the British city attached a rope to the grade II listed statue on Colston Avenue on Sunday before pulling it to the ground as crowds cheered.
Related: BLM protesters topple statue of Bristol slave trader Edward Colston
Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik offers a counterpoint to US attorney general William Barr’s assertion that systemic racism does not exist in American law enforcement:
When a black CNN reporter was arrested live on air last week while covering the protests in Minneapolis, it was met with denunciation that something like this could happen in the US. It was “a sign of American disintegration”, wrote the Washington Post. The head of civil liberties groupPEN America called it a “dystopian spectacle”. On social media, the accompanying indignation to his arrest was that: “This is America, arresting journalists for doing their job doesn’t happen here.” But the list of things that don’t supposedly happen in America continues to grow. Peaceful protesters don’t get teargassed: this is America. Presidents don’t threaten to unleash troops on those protesting against killing and oppression: this is America.
Related: Racism in America is not the exception – it's the norm | Nesrine Malik
Thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters have gathered outside the US embassy in London. Here’s video of the demonstration:
Related: ‘Now is the time’: London’s Black Lives Matter rally looks like a turning point
Admiral James Stavridis, the former supreme allied commander at Nato, has joined the growing list of retired US military leaders to condemn Donald Trump.
The president has talked about “dominating” protesters over the last few weeks. During an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, Stavridis dismissed Trump’s comments. “This is not a battlespace to be dominated. These are zones of protest to be protected,” he said.
One of the most controversial moments of the protests over the last week came when law enforcement used pepper spray and rubber bullets to clear a crowd at Lafayette Square near the White House, so that Donald Trump could pose for a photo outside a local church.
AG Bill Barr says methods @usparkpolicepio used to move protesters were appropriate “when they met resistance" including tear gas used to clear crowds in front of St. John’s Church and pepper balls Monday to “put a larger perimeter around" @WhiteHousehttps://t.co/DyNsvp1mdvpic.twitter.com/C1OjVUkHJS
Related: Bishop 'outraged' over Trump's church photo op during George Floyd protests
Barr then agreed with Chad Wolf, the acting homeland security secretary, that there is no systemic racism in US law enforcement.
“I think there’s racism in the United States still but I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist,” said Barr.“I understand the ... the distrust, however, of the African American community given the history in this country. I think we have to recognize that for most of our history, our institutions were explicitly racist. Since the 1960s, I think we’ve been in a phase of reforming our institutions and making sure that they’re in sync with our laws and aren’t fighting a rearguard action to impose inequities.”
Related: Trump's scrapping of Obama-era reforms hinders police reform
The US attorney general, William Barr, has appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation to talk about the White House’s response to protests against the death of George Floyd in Washington DC. He was first asked about the decision to have military troops on standby to respond to US citizens exercising their right to protest.
As protests following the killing of George Floydsweep US cities on a scale not seen in decades, there is huge debate around what reforms police forces must make, amid surging support to defund them. Some police departments have taken steps to address long-criticized tactics and excessive use-of-force.
Chad Wolf, the acting homeland security secretary, says he does not belief there is systemic racism within US police. Wolf was asked the question on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, by host Martha Raddatz, who pointed out African Americans are killed by police at twice the rate of white Americans.
“I do not think that we have a systemic racism problem with law enforcement officers across this country,” said Wolf. “Do I acknowledge that there are some law enforcement officers that abuse their jobs? Yes. And again, we need to hold those accountable. And I would say that there are individuals in every profession across this country that probably abuse their authority and their power ...
Donald Trump has said the national guard are withdrawing from Washington DC.
“I have just given an order for our National Guard to start the process of withdrawing from Washington, D.C., now that everything is under perfect control,” wrote the president on Twitter. “They will be going home, but can quickly return, if needed. Far fewer protesters showed up last night than anticipated!”
I have just given an order for our National Guard to start the process of withdrawing from Washington, D.C., now that everything is under perfect control. They will be going home, but can quickly return, if needed. Far fewer protesters showed up last night than anticipated!
Related: Trump reaches for Nixon playbook after protests that have rocked America
Our correspondent in Rome, Angela Giuffrida, has news of protests in Italy:
Demonstrators filled Rome’s Piazza del Popolo on Sunday, joining protests taking place across the world against racism.
Edward Colston statue pulled down by BLM protesters in Bristol. Colston was a 17th century slave trader who has numerous landmarks named after him in Bristol. #BlackLivesMattters#blmbristol#ukprotestspic.twitter.com/JEwk3qKJx2
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted between in the days following the death of George Floyd shows 80% of voters believe the US is out of control.
“[It’s] one of the few things Americans can agree upon, and the one finding that we can definitively state given the tumult and torment of the past 12 days,” said Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who helped conduct the poll, which was taken before job figures that were not as bad as some people feared were released last week.
Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development, is now on CNN.
Carson says he is proud of those who peacefully protest and horrified by those looted after the killing of George Floyd.
The former secretary state, and retired general, Colin Powell is on CNN’s State of the Union show.
He is asked about other generals who have criticized Donald Trump, such as James Mattis.
Black Lives Matter protests are building across the UK for a second consecutive day, including in Edinburgh.
#BlackLivesMatter protestors in #Edinburgh urged to keep 2m apart, wear face masks - many climb flanks of Salisbury Crags #HolyroodPark to join demo - loud chorus of #BlackLivesMatterpic.twitter.com/MRw9lmQ6wv
Several thousand #BlackLivesMatter protesters have gathered at #HolyroodPark under #ArthursSeat#Edinburgh - racism is a Scottish problem too, say many; defying politicians’ plea to avoid mass gatherings pic.twitter.com/JQ9gWQYNlk
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has lifted a citywide 8 pm curfew that drew extensive criticism for intensifying tensions between protesters and police -- including numerous accounts of brutality against participants in demonstrations following the killing of George Floyd.
De Blasio announced the change in a Tweet Sunday morning, which stated: “New York City: We are lifting the curfew, effective immediately. Yesterday and last night we saw the very best of our city.”
Prague has witnessed its biggest public gathering in months after several hundred people marched through the city’s medieval streets demonstrating against racism and the killing of George Floyd.
Placard-carrying protesters chanting slogans including “Black Lives Matter” and “Goerge Floyd, say his name” congregated in the Czech capital’s landmark Old Town Square before marching to the US embassy in the Mala Strana neighbourhood.
Prague’s Charles Bridge has seen most things in its 600-year history, but a Black Lives Matter demo - complete with “fuck the police” chants as the local constabulary provided an escort without batting an eyelid - definitely had the feel of a true original. pic.twitter.com/bkuDOJLudy
George Floyd’s killing and the subsequent protests continue to be a powerful catalyst for conversations about race around the world. This morning in the UK, former Liverpool and England football John Barnes told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday that structural racism in Britain was just as bad as in the US.
“[The UK] hasn’t got a problem like the US in terms of our policemen killing black people on the streets as we saw with George Floyd,” Barnes said. “However, in terms of the disenfranchisement of the inner cities, in terms of the black community not being given access to healthcare and so forth, jobs, housing, it’s exactly the same.”
“They were 48 minutes of mayhem that shook the republic,” writes my colleague David Smith of US president Donald Trump’s photo-op at St John’s church in Washington DC, in a piece published today.
With a bizarre pageant of riots shields, a Bible and a designer handbag, they also represented what could be Donald Trump’s last best chance of clinging to power.
Before sunset last Monday, the US president stood in the White House Rose Garden, threatened to turn the American military on the American people and declared: “I am your president of law and order.”
Related: Trump reaches for Nixon playbook after protests that have rocked America
Hello, welcome to our live coverage of the ongoing protests against racism and police brutality in the US and around the world, now into their second week since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on 25 May.
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets, in big cities and small towns, from coast to coast, marking one of the the largest and widest mobilisations yet.
Related: George Floyd killing: peaceful protests sweep America as calls for racial justice reach new heights
Continue reading...