Protests against racism and police brutality sweep the globe
The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis set off demonstrations across the United States and in cities on every continent.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched in cities around the world this weekend in an extraordinary wave of protest against racism and police violence, triggered by the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.
What began as local anger in Minnesota spread within days into one of the largest protest movements in modern American history, and then leapt beyond US borders. Demonstrators gathered in London, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro and dozens of other cities, often invoking Floyd's name and the slogan "Black Lives Matter" while also confronting their own countries' histories of racism and colonialism.
In the United States, the protests were overwhelmingly peaceful but were punctuated in places by clashes, looting and a heavy police response, and several cities imposed curfews. The officer seen kneeling on Floyd was charged with murder, and three colleagues were charged with aiding the crime.
The movement forced a broad reckoning. Companies, universities and governments issued statements on racial justice; some cities pledged to overhaul policing; and statues of slave traders and colonial figures were torn down or removed in several countries.
The scale and persistence of the demonstrations, sustained through a pandemic, signalled that the demands for change would not easily subside, even as debate intensified over what concrete reforms should follow.