Thousands of protesters gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in London on Sunday to condemn police brutality after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, some wearing face masks to protect against COVID-19 bearing the slogan “racism is a virus.”On Saturday, thousands of protesters had gathered in central London in a demonstration that was peaceful but that ended with small numbers of people clashing with mounted police near Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street residence.London Police chief Cressida Dick said 27 officers had been injured in “shocking and completely unacceptable” assaults during anti-racism protests in central London this week, including 14 on Saturday.Both Dick and health minister Matt Hancock urged protesters not to gather in London again on Sunday due to the risk of the spread of the coronavirus. But thousands ignored this to pack the road outside the embassy on the south bank of the River Thames.”It just needs to stop now,” said 17-year-old student Chaniya La Rose who was at the protest with her family. “It shouldn’t have to be this hard to be equal.”There have been demonstrations around the world over police treatment of ethnic minorities, sparked by the death of Floyd, a black American, on May 25 in Minneapolis. A white police officer detaining him knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The London protest was peaceful, with people clapping, taking to one knee, waving placards and chanting “George Floyd” and “the UK is not innocent.”Pauline Nandoo, 60, said she had been protesting about the issue of racism since the 1970s and the images of violence at the end of Saturday’s protest had not deterred her.”There’s children of all ages and older adults here,” said Nandoo, who was with her brother and 13-year-old daughter. “They are going to experience what we have experienced and we have to try to make that not happen.” 
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A Russian journalist whose jailing prompted protests in which police detained demonstrators has been released. The detentions brought criticism that authorities were using coronavirus restrictions to suppress opposition. Ilya Azar was sentenced to 15 days in jail on May 28, but was released Sunday after a court reduced his sentence. Azar was arrested after holding a one-man picket outside police headquarters in Moscow against the jailing on extortion charges of an activist who monitors police corruption. He was jailed for violating a ban on public gatherings during the coronavirus lockdown. Other pickets protesting his jailing took place in Moscow and St. Petersburg and at least 35 people were detained, many of them charged with violating the gatherings ban. Amnesty International, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Russia’s Presidential Human Rights Council have all condemned the Russian crackdown.   
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Tens of thousands of people gathered Saturday in cities far from the United States to express their anger over the death of George Floyd, a sign that the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality is resonating with wider calls over addressing racism in Asia, Australia and Europe.In Berlin, where police said 15,000 people rallied peacefully on the German capital’s Alexander Square, protesters chanted Floyd’s name and held up placards with slogans such as “Stop police brutality” and “I can’t breathe.”Floyd, a black man, died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck even after Floyd pleaded for air while handcuffed and stopped moving. International protests started last weekend and were scheduled for this weekend from Sydney to Seoul and London to Naples.  Several thousand demonstrators in Paris defied a protest ban — issued because of the coronavirus pandemic — and assembled within sight of the U.S. Embassy, kept back by imposing barriers and riot police.Among the crowd in the French capital was Marie Djedje, 14, a Parisian born on July 14, the French national day.”I was born French, on the day when we celebrate our country. But on a daily basis, I don’t feel that this country accepts me,” she said, holding up a sign that read “Being black is not a crime.”The teenager said that emerging from France’s virus lockdown and seeing officers on patrol again drove home how scared she is of the police and how she has steeled herself for a life of overcoming obstacles.”I know that because of my skin color I’m starting out with a handicap, for example, if I want to get a flat or go to a top school,” she said. “I know I’m going to have to fight twice as hard as the others. But I’m prepared.”In central London, tens of thousands staged a rally outside Parliament Square, invoking Floyd’s memory as well as people who died during police encounters or indifference in Britain. Some protesters ignored thickening rain clouds and later headed toward the U.K. Home Office, which oversees law enforcement and immigration, and to the U.S. Embassy.Many dropped to one knee and raised their fists in the air outside the gleaming embassy building south of the River Thames. There were chants of “Silence is violence” and “Color is not a crime.”The majority of those marching wore masks and other face coverings, and appeared to make an effort to adhere to social distancing guidelines by walking in small groups.A young woman wears a face mark as people gather at the Alexander Platz in Berlin, Germany, June 6, 2020, to protest against the recent killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis.An estimated 15,000 people also gathered in the heart of Manchester, England, and another 2,000 people joined in a demonstration in the Welsh capital of Cardiff.Andrew Francis, 37, a black man from London, said there’s “a lot of frustration due to racial discrimination, and we want change for our children and our children’s children’s to be able to have equality within the U.K., the U.S., all around the world.”Francis, who wore a face covering, said he wasn’t worried about the coronavirus and said the fight for racial equality was “more important” to him.Floyd’s death has sparked significant protests across the United States, but it has also struck a chord with minorities protesting discrimination elsewhere, including demonstrators in Sydney who highlighted indigenous Australians who died in custody.Peaceful rallyA rally there appeared orderly as police handed out masks to protesters and other officials provided hand sanitizer, though officers removed an apparent counterprotester carrying a sign reading, “White Lives, Black Lives, All Lives Matter.”  In Brisbane, the Queensland state capital, organizers said about 30,000 people gathered, forcing police to shut down some major downtown streets. The protesters demanded to have Australia’s Indigenous flag raised at the police station.Indigenous Australians make up 2% of the the country’s adult population, but 27% of the prison population. They are also the most disadvantaged ethnic minority in Australia and have higher-than-average rates of infant mortality and poor health, as well as shorter life expectancies and lower levels of education and employment than other Australians.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 10 MB540p | 15 MB720p | 33 MB1080p | 61 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioIn South Korea’s capital, Seoul, protesters gathered for a second straight day to denounce Floyd’s death.Wearing masks and black shirts, dozens of demonstrators marched through a commercial district amid a police escort, carrying signs such as “George Floyd Rest in Peace” and “Koreans for Black Lives Matter.””I urge the U.S. government to stop the violent suppression of [U.S.] protesters and listen to their voices,” said Jihoon Shim, one of the rally’s organizers. “I also want to urge the South Korean government to show its support for their fight [against racism].”Chris Trabot, who works for Paris City Hall, said Floyd’s death last week triggered his decision to demonstrate Saturday for the first time in his life.Born in the French territory of Martinique, Trabot said he first experienced racism as a child when he moved with his family to mainland France and got into frequent fights with white kids who mocked his skin color.  As an adult, he says, he’s been targeted with racial abuse during ID checks. Recently, his 9-year-old daughter has told him of being a target of racism, too, with schoolmates mocking her hair.  Concern for childrenJessica Corandi, a Paris Metro driver, said she cried when she saw the video of Floyd’s treatment by Minneapolis police. The 37-year-old said her three young girls have started to notice people looking at them strangely on the streets of Paris, which she believes is because they are black.Protesters outside the U.S. Consulate in Naples chanted “Freedom!” and “No justice, no peace, [expletive] the police,” in English and Italian, as they clapped and carried handmade signs and a big banner printed with “Black Lives Matter” and a clenched black fist.In Italy, racist incidents have been on the rise in recent years with an influx of migrants from Africa and the growth of anti-migrant sentiment.Police said 20,000 people rallied against racism in Munich, while thousands more took part in protests in Frankfurt and Cologne.In Berlin, Lloyd Lawson, who was born in Britain but raised in Germany, said he had faced racism his entire life.  “The killing and these violent physical things that have happened is only just the top of it,” said Lawson, 54. “That’s why you’ve got to start right from the bottom, just like an iceberg.”
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As forces loyal to the internationally recognized Libyan government in Tripoli gain more ground near the capital from forces under eastern military commander General Khalifa Haftar, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sissi called for a cease-fire. Sissi urged both sides to resume dialogue. Tripoli-based Prime Minister Fayez al Sarraj also met Friday with his main backer, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.Amateur video broadcast by Arab media showed forces loyal to the Tripoli government capturing Bani Walid Airport, outside Tripoli, after defenders loyal to General Khalifa Haftar withdrew to positions farther to the east of the capital. Other video showed fighters loyal to the Tripoli government consolidating control of the nearby town of Tarhuna, which they captured a day earlier.Arab media reported that several Turkish drones bombed a convoy of vehicles that had left Tarhuna as they were approaching the coastal town of Sirte, which is still under the control of forces loyal to Gen. Haftar. Qatari-owned al Jazeera TV (Arabic) claimed that supporters of the government in Tripoli were preparing to attack Sirte, which is still under Haftar’s control. VOA could not independently confirm the claim.Meanwhile, in Cairo, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi met with General Haftar and the head of the Libyan house of representatives, Aquela Salah, and called for a cease-fire beginning Monday, June 8.He says that Egypt’s initiative is based on the respect of all international resolutions and calls for a cease-fire beginning Monday at 6 a.m., in addition to the withdrawal of all foreign mercenaries from the entire country, and the dismantling of all militias to allow the Libyan Army and the security forces to exert control. 
Haftar, speaking at a press conference alongside Sissi, backed Egypt’s cease-fire call and urged the Egyptian president to use his influence to oblige Turkey to withdraw mercenaries it has sent to Libya.He says that Turkey’s military intervention in Libya has increased polarization both among Libyans and among countries which are involved in the conflict and have opposing interests. He urges Sissi to increase efforts to oblige Turkey to stop sending mercenaries and weapons to Libya.
 
Responding to the cease-fire call, Khaled al Meshri, head of the Tripoli government’s “presidential council,” told al Jazeera TV that “Libya doesn’t need another peace initiative,” and he claimed that Haftar’s forces now have “suffered defeat and should not be trying to dictate the terms of an agreement.”
 
Fayez al Sarraj, who heads the Tripoli-based “National Unity Government” met Friday with the Turkish prime minister in Ankara. Some Arab media report that Turkey has sent close to 10,000 Syrian mercenaries to fight in Libya. VOA could not independently confirm the figure.
 
Both the UAE and Jordan, which support General Haftar, indicated Saturday that they would support Egypt’s call for a cease-fire.  
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Greece is preparing to reopen to international tourism in the coming days, a move expected to bring in as many as 10 million travelers from several countries. The re-start is vital for the weak Greek economy that relies heavily on tourism. However, health officials fear tourism could fan a flare-up in COVID-19 and have grave repercussions for Greece, after a decade of financial recession.Health concerns have surged after a flight from Doha this week brought in 19 cases of the coronavirus.The number may seem small but, matched up against the near-zero infections that Greece has been showing for weeks now, infectious disease experts such as Haralambos Gogos are worried.We are on alert, he says, monitoring the situation and holding one meeting after another to best tackle this matter without having to shut down flights and tourism before they actually kick off.Health concerns have also arisen from a recent report by Greece’s National Public Health Organization showing a startling 36% rise in imported COVID-19 cases in the last 10 days. That’s almost twice as many as the country recorded in total from the start of the pandemic here five months ago.However alarming, officials in Athens say, Greece’s tourism re-launch will proceed as planned on June 15, when the first wave of travelers is due to fly in from 29 countries.Those countries are currently showing low rates of COVID-19 infection. Beginning July 1, though, Athens hopes to include several more countries, opening its doors to between 6 million and 10 million foreign travelers.Emmanouil Dermitzakis, a professor of genetics at the medical school at the University of Geneva , says that means thousands of COVID-19 cases hitting Greece.A rough estimate, he says, shows that about 10% of those incoming travelers will be carriers, and of them, as many as 700 will show symptoms and require treatment.For a nation counting less than 3,000 infections and 180 deaths from the pandemic, the predicted figures look daunting.Dermitzakis says Greece’s random testing capabilities have significantly increased in recent months.The situation, he says, is manageable. But the spread of the virus during the summer will ultimately come down to how Greeks themselves comply with social distancing rules — or not. Since lockdown measures eased here in May, thousands of Greeks have taken to public places, defying social distancing rules in ways that have experts like Demitzakis concerned.It’s understandable that after months of lockdown, Greeks are out and about, but this does not justify and warrant the defiance we are currently seeing, he says.Ultimately, DermitzakIs says, Greek will have to make a stark choice between altering those behaviors to suit the demands of this different summer or suffer unemployment and a financial crisis if the pandemic roils out of control, forcing Greece to shut down again.
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A ceremony to honor the sacrifice of those who lost their lives in the D-Day landings in 1944 was held on Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer in France Saturday.Due to the coronavirus restrictions, the commemoration was much smaller than previous annual events, when tens of thousands or people congregated on the northern French beaches of Normandy.Billie Bishop, from San Jose, California, holds a photo of his uncle, WWII soldier Billie Bishop, as he prepares to lay a rose in the sea during a D-Day 76th anniversary ceremony in Saint Laurent sur Mer, Normandy, France, June 6, 2020.France, however, would not let the day pass unnoticed, Philippe Laillier, mayor of the city said, where he led the ceremony around the Omaha Beach monument.”We couldn’t imagine doing nothing! So yes, we figured that there would be people on the beach this morning even if nothing was organized – we knew because it’s a ritual and when we say we won’t forget, we mean it, we don’t forget,” said Philippe Laillier, Mayor of Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer. “Last night, I exchanged with Americans who couldn’t be here, and with us – in thoughts. Whatever happens, on June 6th in Normandy, we can’t forget.”A bigger and more flamboyant event would have posed a threat to the surviving D-Day veterans, most of whom are now in their late nineties, or to other elderly persons who had participated in previous years ceremonies.On Sad Anniversary, Few to Mourn the D-Day Dead in NormandySaturday’s anniversary will be one of the loneliest remembrances ever for the June 6, 1944 D-Day landings in NormandyFrench soldiers jointed some 160,000 of their counterparts from the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries who landed on the beaches on June 6, 1944 and continued the fight to force the Nazis to surrender almost one year later.
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French military forces killed al-Qaida’s North Africa chief, Abdelmalek Droukdel, during an operation in Mali, officials said Friday.”On June 3, French army forces, with the support of their local partners, killed the emir of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, Abdelmalek Droukdel, and several of his closest collaborators, during an operation in northern Mali,” French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly wrote on Twitter.French forces had been hunting Droukdel, a key Islamist fighter, for more than seven years, officials said.The French-led operation against Droukdel was aided by U.S. forces, which provided intelligence and surveillance support to “fix the target,” according to U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).”This mission is a collective win,” AFRICOM spokesman Col. Chris Karns told VOA.”This was a great example of cooperation and partnership to get after a common threat,” he said, praising France’s commitment to fighting both al-Qaida and Islamic State-linked terror groups in West Africa.Officials said Droukdel, who was known to be involved in all aspects al-Qaida’s operations in the region, had been seeking to expand the amount of territory under his control and increase the number of attacks.“This definitely is a blow to AQIM and certainly degrades their ability to plan and carry out operations,” Karns added.Fighting IS-linked militantsThe announcement of the death of Droukdel comes almost six months after former colonial power France and regional states combined their military forces under one command structure to focus on fighting IS-linked militants in the border regions of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, according to a Reuters report.Droukdel, among North Africa’s most experienced militants, took part in an Islamist militant takeover of northern Mali. In 2013, a French military intervention pushed them back and scattered the fighters across the Sahel region.Droukdel was believed to be hiding in the mountains of northern Algeria, according to a Reuters report. Al-Qaida North Africa was the dominant jihadist force in the region, staging several high-profile deadly attacks until 2013, when it fractured as many militants flocked to the more extremist IS as it seized territory in Iraq, Syria and Libya, according to the news service.It remained active in North Africa’s largely desert and often scarcely governed Sahel region. In Mali, it focused its activities to the north in Libya and Tunisia. As IS waned, it sought to lure new talent from among IS veterans.Parly said that French forces, which number about 5,100 in the region, had also on May 19 captured Mohamed el Mrabat, a fighter she identified as a veteran militant in the region and a member of IS in the Greater Sahara, a Reuters report said.”Our forces, in cooperation with their local partners … will continue to track these (people) down without respite,” Parly said, according to Reuters.Militants strengthen footholdCritics in the region have increasingly scorned Paris for failing to restore stability. Anti-French sentiment has grown as militants have strengthened their foothold, making large swathes of territory ungovernable and stoking ethnic violence.Parly told Reuters that earlier this week about 100 special forces from other European countries would be deployed to the region to support French and regional troops.Both France and the United States have been calling on other European countries to contribute more to the fight against terror groups in Africa, especially as the U.S. military looks to move forces to counter threats posed by powers like Russia and China.Members of the global coalition to defeat IS have also expressed a desire to focus additional efforts in Africa, but planning has been delayed due to the global coronavirus pandemic.In a communique issued following a virtual meeting Thursday, coalition members promised to move ahead with those efforts, with a focus on “capacity building … upon the request and prior consent of the countries concerned and be coordinated with existing efforts and initiatives.”French officials, however, have urged the U.S. to keep some forces in Africa, stressing that some U.S. capabilities, especially in the areas of intelligence and surveillance, cannot be replaced.VOA’s Jeff Seldin contributed to this report. Some information for this report also came from Reuters.   
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France said Friday that its military forces had killed al-Qaida’s North Africa chief, Abdelmalek Droukdel, a key Islamist fighter whom its forces had been hunting for more than seven years, during an operation in Mali.”On June 3, French army forces, with the support of their local partners, killed the emir of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, Abdelmalek Droukdel, and several of his closest collaborators, during an operation in northern Mali,” French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly wrote on Twitter.The announcement of the death of Droukdel came almost six months after former colonial power France and regional states combined their military forces under one command structure to focus on fighting Islamic State-linked militants in the border regions of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.Droukdel was among North Africa’s most experienced militants. He took part in an Islamist militant takeover of northern Mali before a French military intervention in 2013 drove them back and scattered fighters across the Sahel region.Once a dominant forceDroukdel was believed to be hiding in the mountains of northern Algeria. Al-Qaida North Africa was the dominant jihadist force in the region until 2013, when it fractured as many militants flocked to the more extremist Islamic State.It remained active in North Africa’s largely desert and often scarcely governed Sahel region. In Mali, it focused its activities to the north in Libya and Tunisia. As Islamic State waned, it has sought to lure new talent from among IS veterans.Parly said that French forces, which number about 5,100 in the region, had also on May 19 captured Mohamed el Mrabat, a fighter she identified as a veteran militant in the region and member of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.”Our forces, in cooperation with their local partners… will continue to track these [people] down without respite,” Parly said.Critics in the region have increasingly scorned Paris for failing to restore stability. Anti-French sentiment has grown as militants have strengthened their foothold, making large swaths of territory ungovernable and stoking ethnic violence.Parly said earlier this week that about 100 special forces from other European countries would be deployed to the region to support French and regional troops.
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The Trump administration’s campaign to keep Chinese tech giant Huawei out of its allies’ 5G networks appears to be gaining ground in Britain.  Last year the British government concluded that although Huawei posed a “significantly increased risk” to British communications, the government decided to ban Huawei only from the country’s so-called network “core,” but otherwise allow it to attain up to 35% of Britain’s  5G network market.  That position changed after months of lobbying by U.S. officials, when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last month that the country was examining possibilities for completely excluding Huawei from its 5G network by 2023.  Now, British officials are trying to Mobile network phone masts are visible in front of St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London, Jan. 28, 2020.Experts say Britain’s change of attitude is partly due to concerns that refusing to cooperate with the U.S. on Huawei will pose a threat to intelligence sharing and joint defense capabilities with its major ally.  Others caution it’s unlikely that the new alliance will become a reality since telecom operators in European countries are unwilling to “rip and replace” Huawei components from their communications systems because of the high cost, and are lobbying their own governments to make sure Huawei remains an approved vendor.’D10′ club of democratic partners The countries in the group are the G7 countries — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S. — plus Australia, South Korea and India. The proposal includes providing financial support to tech companies within the alliance.Justin Sherman, a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative, said that Huawei’s major competitors, Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson, are both unable to attract enough capital to compete with Huawei’s massive 5G network infrastructure division, which gets financial support from the Chinese government.  “So there are lots of fronts on which this democratic coalition could presumably work, including more robust government investment in 5G research and development projects domestically, greater advocacy for open 5G standards in international bodies to contest the proprietary standards that Huawei continues to advance, or even the development of some kind of industrial policy to help promote 5G innovation,” Sherman  told VOA Mandarin.   FILE – Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee nomination hearing for Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 5, 2020.U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who is one of Huawei’s leading critics in Washington, warned the British Parliament on Tuesday that China was trying to use the telecom equipment maker “to drive a high-tech wedge between us.”  He added that the U.S., Britain and other allies could team up to develop their own superior 5G technologies. Meanwhile, the White House launched a major review of Chinese penetration of Huawei’s 5G Product Line President, Yang Chaobin, speaks during a 5G event in London, on Feb. 20, 2020.Lee-Makiyama added that telecom operators in Europe are owned by financial institutions, pension funds or governments, which means they are not as interested in investing in new networks or reinvesting in high-end networks.  “5G for them is just a cost,” he said.   He also pointed out that compared to the U.S. and Asian countries, the demand of European telecom users is not as high. “Consumers are not demanding higher speed. Shareholders prefer to see dividends rather than investments in the networks,” said Lee-Makiyama. “So, all in all, they are big fans of Chinese suppliers and they are lobbying very hard against their governments to make sure that Huawei continues to be allowed in the European markets.” Chuanqi Xu and Lin Yang contributed to this report.
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All too many have been, for 76 years since that fateful June 6 on France’s Normandy beaches, when allied troops in 1944 turned the course of World War II and went on to defeat fascism in Europe in one of the most remarkable feats in military history.Forgotten they will never be. Revered, yes. But Saturday’s anniversary will be one of the loneliest remembrances ever, as the coronavirus pandemic is keeping almost everyone away — from government leaders to frail veterans who might not get another chance for a final farewell to their unlucky comrades.  Rain and wind are also forecast, after weeks of warm, sunny weather.”The sadness is almost too much, because there is no one,” said local guide Adeline James. “Plus you have their stories. The history is sad and it’s even more overwhelming now between the weather, the (virus) situation and, and, and.”The locals in this northwestern part of France have come out year after year to show their gratitude for the soldiers from the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries who liberated them from Adolf Hitler’s Nazi forces.Despite the lack of international crowds, David Pottier still went out to raise American flags in the Calvados village of Mosles, population 356, which was liberated by allied troops the day after the landing on five Normandy beachheads.  In a forlorn scene, a gardener tended to the parched grass around the small monument for the war dead, while Pottier, the local mayor, was getting the French tricolor to flutter next to the Stars and Stripes.  “We have to recognize that they came to die in a foreign land,” Pottier said. “We miss the GIs,” he said of the U.S. soldiers.  The pandemic has wreaked havoc across the world, infecting 6.6 million people, killing over 391,000 and devastating economies. It poses a particular threat to the elderly  — like the surviving D-Day veterans who are in their late nineties or older.  It has also affected the younger generations who turn out every year to mark the occasion. Most have been barred from traveling to the windswept coasts of Normandy.  Some 160,000 soldiers made the perilous crossing from England that day in atrocious conditions, storming dunes which they knew were heavily defended by German troops determined to hold their positions.  Somehow, they succeeded. Yet they left a trail of thousands of casualties who have been mourned for generations since.  Last year stood out, with U.S. President Donald Trump joining his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach. A smattering of veterans were honored with the highest accolades. All across the beaches of Normandy tens of thousands came from across the globe to pay their respects to the dead and laud the surviving soldiers.  The acrid smell of wartime-era jeep exhaust fumes and the rumble of old tanks filled the air as parades of vintages vehicles went from village to village. The tiny roads between the dunes, hedges and apple orchards were clogged for hours, if not days.Heading into the D-Day remembrance weekend this year, only the salty brine coming off the ocean on Omaha Beach hits the nostrils, the shrieks of seagulls pierce the ears and a sense of desolation hangs across the region’s country roads.  “Last year this place was full with jeeps, trucks, people dressed up as soldiers,” said Eric Angely, who sat on a seawall, dressed in a World War II uniform after taking his restored U.S. Army jeep out for a ride.  “This year, there is nothing. It’s just me now, my dog and my jeep,” the local Frenchman said.Three quarters of a century and the horrific wartime slaughter of D-Day help put things in perspective. Someday the COVID-19 pandemic, too, will pass, and people will turn out to remember both events that shook the world.”We don’t have a short memory around here,” Pottier said with a wistful smile. 
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Officials in Norway say eight structures were swept into the sea by a landslide near the Norwegian Arctic town of Alta.A local resident, Jan Egil Bakkedal, captured the event on video Wednesday in the village of Kraakneset. He told the Associated Press he ran for his life when he realized what was happening. Among houses that were lost was his own.Police estimate the landslide was between 650 meters and 800 meters wide and up to 40 meters high. Officials did not know what caused the slide.Several minor landslides followed, and nearby houses were temporarily evacuated as a precaution.No injuries were reported. A dog that was washed into the sea was able to swim back to land. 
 
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British Prime Minister Prime Minister Boris Johnson Thursday opened the Global Vaccine Summit, a virtual gathering of more that 50 countries, to raise funds for the U.N.-backed public-private health alliance known as GAVI, with the goal of ensuring vaccines are available to all.The summit hopes to raise more than $7.5 billion for the development and equitable world-wide distribution of COVID-19 and other vaccines.In his remarks from London, Johnson pledged Britain will contribute just over $2 billion to the GAVI vaccine alliance over the next five years.  Along with creation of a COVID-19 vaccine, Johnson also called on nations to replenish funding for vaccines that already exist.In a recorded video message, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for global solidarity to ensure every person everywhere has access to any COVID-19 vaccine that is produced, and for the network that is used to share that vaccine be used to deliver a range of basic health services.Using data provided by governments around the world, Johns Hopkins University reports the COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 386,000 worldwide and crippled economies. Restrictions imposed to prevent the virus from spreading have further hampered efforts to deliver regular vaccinations and other health services around the world.
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BRUSSELS/COPENHAGEN — As bars across Europe gradually reopen, up to a million free or pre-paid beers are waiting to lure back wary consumers. 
  
Beer makers from global giant Anheuser-Busch InBev to smaller craft brewers have set up schemes for consumers to buy drinks in advance to support shuttered bars with, in some cases, the reward of free beer when the doors reopen. 
  
AB InBev launched its first scheme “Cafe Courage” in Belgium and has since sold over 200,000 Stella Artois, Jupiler and other brands. It also started similar schemes in 20 other markets across Europe and from Brazil to Hong Kong, raising over $6 million for pubs, bars and restaurants. 
  
World number two Heineken put the number of drinks sold through its various voucher schemes at 270,000. 
  
Now the bars are opening, consumers have had their first chance to redeem coupons or vouchers. 
  
Danish friends Arendse Rohland and Thomas Hoffner Lovgren were among those to profit from free beers after bars re-opened there on May 18. 
  
Danish brewer Carlsberg offered lagers in a bar to consumers who bought bottles or cans from stores in its “Adopt a Keg” scheme. The idea was to lure drinkers back with free drinks and hope that they would then buy more. Hoffner Lovgren and Rohland both seemed willing to do so. 
  
“I rarely only drink one beer,” Roland said after collecting a free drink at Carl’s Ol & Spisehus in a Copenhagen suburb. 
  
Drinkers elsewhere are now in line. France became the latest country on Tuesday to allow bars and restaurants to operate after the Netherlands on Monday. Ireland and Belgium are expected to follow later this month, with Britain in July. 
  
Julian Marsili, Carlsberg global brand director, said its campaign would even continue into the summer. 
  
“Travel will not be massive, at least outside Denmark, so we are encouraging people who want to adopt kegs to explore Denmark further in bars in the tourist places,” he said. 
  
The schemes have helped, but not made up the shortfall. In Britain, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said pubs could have recorded their best April in a decade, selling 745 million pints in unseasonably warm and sunny weather. 
  
The issue is acute for brewers, with about a third of beer typically consumed in pubs, bars or cafes. In value terms, that can rise to 60-65%, according to Pierre-Olivier Bergeron, secretary general of the Brewers of Europe. 
  
Beer sales in stores have risen, but well below the rate of wine and spirits and not enough to make up for the loss of on-premise drinking, according to U.S. data from marketing research firm Nielsen.   
  Will they come?
  
Reopened bars and restaurants will clearly not operate as they did before the coronavirus closures, with limited time at the bar or table service, shorter hours and measures to minimize contact between staff and customers and to keep customers apart. 
  
Emma McClarkin, BBPA chief executive, said the social distancing gap made a big difference. Two meters, currently used in Britain, might only allow only a third of Britain’s 47,000 pubs to reopen while a one-meter rule, deemed safe by the World Health Organization, would allow 75% to operate, she said. 
  
Brewers have also been helping with some of the new hardware involved and learning from China, where restaurants and bars reopened from March. 
  
Jan Craps, chief executive of Budweiser Brewing Co APAC, said the AB InBev Asian subsidiary had sent “welcome kits” including hand sanitizer, gloves, masks and advice to 50,000 bars and restaurants across China and 1,000 plastic screens to help smaller venues separate groups of customers. 
  
Craps said the kits were being replicated in many other countries, such as the Americas where the brewer has its largest markets. 
  
A study for the brewer of British pub-goers found 93% were keen to revisit their local and over a third intend to visit within a week of reopening. A majority also wanted to keep 2 meters away from strangers. 
  
Business will not resume as before. Belgian cafe and restaurant owners expect on average 45% fewer customers as a result of social distancing measures and consumer wariness. 
  
“It’s not a back to normal situation… establishments now reopening will be reopening under pretty special conditions,” Bergeron said. 
 
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Images of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of African-American George Floyd, who then died, have sparked protests from Amsterdam to Nairobi, but they also expose deeper grievances among demonstrators over strained race relations in their own countries.
 
With violent clashes between protesters and authorities raging in the United States, anti-police-brutality activists gathered by the thousands in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in various European and African cities.
 Peaceful protesters highlighted allegations of abuse of black prisoners by their jailers, social and economic inequality, and institutional racism lingering from the colonial pasts of the Netherlands, Britain and France.
 
“If you want to believe that we in the Netherlands do not have a problem with race, you should go ahead and go home,” Jennifer Tosch, founder of Black Heritage Amsterdam Tours, told a crowd in Amsterdam, from where the Dutch West India Company operated ships estimated to have traded 500,000 slaves in the 1600s and 1700s.
 
Tosch and others drew a comparison between Floyd’s death and the treatment of slaves centuries ago. “We have seen this image before as white persecutors and enslavers held down the enslaved and branded them with an iron.”
 People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Monday, June 1, 2020, to protest against the recent killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, U.S.A., after being restrained by police…In London, a protester held a placard reading “The UK isn’t innocent,” while in Berlin around 2,000 people protested outside the U.S. embassy and two Bundesliga soccer players wore “Justice for George Floyd” shirts on Monday.
 
A similar message came from Dominique Sopo, president of French NGO SOS Racisme, which organized a small protest outside the U.S. embassy in Paris on Monday.
 
“This issue of police racism is also, albeit with a lower level of violence, an issue that concerns France,” he said.
 
Police in northern Paris fired tear gas on Tuesday to disperse demonstrators protesting over the 2016 death of a young black Frenchman in police custody – an incident that has drawn parallels with Floyd’s killing.
 
Adama Traore’s family have blamed excessive force used during his arrest, when the 24-year-old was pinned down by three gendarmes. Successive pathology reports have reached conflicting conclusions over whether his death two hours later resulted from asphyxiation or other factors including pre-existing conditions.
 
Amid a coronavirus lockdown, French activists also say there have been a number of police brutality cases in low-income neighborhoods where many originate from Africa.
 Turkish police officers, in riot gear, and wearing face masks for protections against the spread of the coronavirus, scuffle with protesters during a demonstration in Istanbul, Tuesday, June 2, 2020, against the recent killing of George Floyd in…Clashes in Turkey
 
In Istanbul, more than 50 people clashed with police officers minutes after beginning a protest over Floyd and what they called police brutality in Turkey.
 
At least five people were detained after scuffles with officers holding shields, after which other protesters gave speeches denouncing lethal police force and bans on demonstrations in Turkey during the pandemic.
 
In Nairobi, protesters at the American embassy held signs reading “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop Extrajudicial Killings”.
 
“The system that allows police brutality to happen in Kenya is based on class. In America, it’s race and class.”
 What Is Black Lives Matter?Origins of the movement opposing police violence against black AmericansProtests are planned in coming days in Gambia, Britain, Spain and Portugal.
 
In Spain, protesters will mark the death of Floyd and “all sisters and brothers who have died at the hands of institutional racism on our streets,” the African and Afro-descendant Community CNAAE said.
 
Portugal’s gathering will address “the myth that Portugal is not a racist country.”
 
But not all in Europe side with the protesters.
 
Spain’s far-right Vox party and the Netherlands’ anti-Islam Freedom Party called those protesting Floyd’s death “terrorists” and backed U.S. President Donald Trump.
 
“Our support for Trump and the Americans who are seeing their Nation attacked by street terrorists backed by progressive millionaires,” Vox wrote in a Tweet.
 
In the Netherlands, the Freedom Party’s Geert Wilders tweeted: “White House under attack. This is no protest but anarchy by #AntifaTerrorists.”
 
Even amid such racial division, Linda Nooitmeer, who heads the National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy, drew hope from Monday’s protest in Amsterdam. 
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Sweden’s chief epidemiologist Wednesday defended his country’s controversial “soft” COVID-19 strategy, in which Sweden never totally shut down, but admitted the country could have done some things better.Unlike its European neighbors and much of the rest of the world, Sweden relied on its citizens’ sense of civic duty.  Authorities advised people to practice social distancing, but schools, bars and restaurants have been kept open the entire time. Only gatherings of more than 50 people have been banned.The strategy resulted in one of the highest per capita COVID-19 death rates in the world.At a news briefing, Swedish Public Health Agency epidemiologist Anders Tegnell acknowledged that there would always be “aspects where we could have handled this situation even better than we do today, now, as we learn more and more things.”But he said Swedish authorities still thought theirs was the right strategy. Tegnell said it has worked very well in terms of containing the spread of the disease to a level that the Swedish health care system could handle. It has made it possible to keep schools open, which he said was very important for their society.He acknowledged the “unfortunate” death toll, which he said was mainly in long-term care facilities.  In a Swedish radio interview earlier in the day, Tegnell admitted the death toll had made him reconsider his approach to the pandemic.According to the national health agency, the nation of 10.2 million people has seen 4,542 deaths linked to COVID-19, far more than its neighboring Nordic countries and one of the world’s highest per capita death rates.Denmark has had 580 coronavirus deaths, Finland 320 and Norway 237, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
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Sweden’s chief epidemiologist on Wednesday defended his country’s controversial coronavirus strategy, which avoided a lockdown but resulted in one of the highest per capita COVID-19 death rates in the world.
Anders Tegnell of the Public Health Agency denied that “the Swedish strategy was wrong and should be changed. That’s not the case.”  
“We still believe that our strategy is good, but there is always room for improvement. … You can always get better at this job,” Tegnell told a news conference in Stockholm.  
Sweden has stood out among European nations and the world for the way it has handled the pandemic, not shutting down the country or the economy like other nations but relying on citizens’ sense of civic duty. Swedish authorities have advised people to practice social distancing, but schools, bars and restaurants have been kept open the entire time. Only gatherings of more than 50 people have been banned.
Tegnell’s statement to reporters came after more contrite comments earlier in the day to Swedish radio in which he said “I think there is potential for improvement in what we have done in Sweden, quite clearly.”  
Asked if the country’s high death toll has made him reconsider his unique approach to the pandemic, Tegnell told Swedish radio “yes, absolutely.”
According to the national health agency, Sweden, a nation of 10.2 million people, has seen 4,542 deaths linked to COVID-19, which is far more than its Nordic neighbors and one of the highest per capita death rates in the world. Denmark has had 580 coronavirus deaths, Finland has seen 320 and Norway has had 237, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
“If we were to encounter the same disease again, knowing precisely what we know about it today, I think we would settle on doing something in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done,” Tegnell, considered the architect of the unique Swedish pandemic approach, told SR.
Still, authorities in Sweden, including Tegnell, have been criticized — and some have apologized — for failing to protect the country’s elderly and nursing home residents.  
But Tegnell said Wednesday it was still unclear what the country should have done differently. He also said other nations are unable to tell exactly what measures affected the outcomes of their outbreaks because they threw everything at the crisis at once.
“Maybe we know that now, when you start easing the measures, we could get some kind of lesson about what else, besides what we did, you could do without a total shutdown,” Tegnell said in the radio interview.
At the news conference, Tegnell made it clear that his previous statement “was an admission that we always can become better. I’m sure my colleagues all over the world would say the same thing. There are always aspects which we could have handled this situation even better than we do today, now, as we learn more and more things,” he told The Associated Press.
“Sometimes I feel like a personal punchbag, but that’s OK. I can live with that,” Tegnell added.  
Sweden’s COVID-19 infection rate of 43.2 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants is lower than Spain’s (58.1) and Italy’s (55.4), but is higher than reported rates in the United States (32.1) and Brazil (14.3), according to Johns Hopkins University.  
Last week, the country’s former state epidemiologist, Annika Linde, said in retrospect she believes an early lockdown could have saved lives in Sweden. Political pressure has also forced the Swedish government to speed up an investigation into the handling of the pandemic.
Ordinary Swedes are not sure what to think.
“I’m not walking around thinking that we have a real disaster here in Sweden,” Jan Arpi, a 58-year-old sales executive, told The Associated Press. “I think we have it more or less under control, but we have to be even more careful now after we learned how the virus is spread, especially among elderly people.”  
Tegnell’s pandemic tactics made Sweden a bit of a local pariah in the Nordics and didn’t spare the Swedish economy.  
Sweden’s economy, which relies heavily on exports, is expected to shrink 7% in 2020 and the finance minister says the Scandinavian country is headed for “a very deep economic crisis.”  
More than 76,000 people have been made redundant since the outbreak began and unemployment, which now stands at 7.9%, is expected to climb higher.
On the travel front, neighboring Norway and Denmark said they were dropping mutual border controls but would keep Sweden out of a Nordic “travel bubble.”  
The Danes said they will reopen the border next month to residents of Germany, Norway and Iceland as the country eased its coronavirus lockdown. But Denmark, which has a bridge that goes directly into Sweden, has postponed a decision reopening to Swedish visitors until after the summer. 
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Britain this week eased its lockdown rules, with some pupils returning to school and many families allowed to meet for the first time since March, when measures were implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Britain was one of the slowest countries to lock down and is now one of the worst-hit, with almost 50,000 COVID-19 deaths. Some scientists are now warning that relaxing lockdown rules could trigger a second wave of the pandemic. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell    Produced by: Jon Spier 
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Police in Istanbul have dispersed a small group of demonstrators who gathered in the Turkish city to denounce police violence and to stand in solidarity with protesters in the United States. At least 29 demonstrators were detained, Turkey’s state-run agency reported.
Anadolu Agency said riot police broke up the demonstration in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district late Tuesday after the group of about 50 activists ignored calls to disperse.  
Some of the anti-police violence activists were seen carrying a poster of George Floyd, who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck while the handcuffed black man called out that he couldn’t breathe.
Floyd’s death on May 25 sparked protests that spread across the U.S. and beyond.
Turkish authorities frequently impose bans on public demonstrations or gatherings on security grounds. Human rights groups often accuse police of using disproportionate force to break up demonstrations.
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Three days after George Floyd died with a Minneapolis police officer choking off his air, another black man writhed on the tarmac of a street in Paris as a police officer pressed a knee to his neck during an arrest. Immobilization techniques where officers apply pressure with their knees on prone suspects are used in policing around the world and have long drawn criticism. One reason why Floyd’s death is sparking anger and touching nerves globally is that such techniques have been blamed for asphyxiations and other deaths in police custody beyond American shores, often involving non-white suspects. “We cannot say that the American situation is foreign to us,” said French lawmaker Francois Ruffin, who has pushed for a ban on the police use of face-down holds that are implicated in multiple deaths in France, a parliamentary effort put on hold by the coronavirus pandemic. The muscular arrest on May 28 in Paris of a black man who was momentarily immobilized face-up with an officer’s knee and upper shin pressing down on his jaw, neck and upper chest is among those that have drawn angry comparisons with the killing of Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis. The Paris arrest was filmed by bystanders and widely shared and viewed online. Police said the man was driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol and without a license and that he resisted arrest and insulted officers. His case was turned over to prosecutors. In Hong Kong, where police behavior is a hot-button issue after months of anti-government protests, the city’s force says it is investigating the death of a man who was immobilized face-down during his arrest in May by officers who were filmed kneeling on his shoulder, back and neck.A man walks past extra barricades that have been erected near the Legislative Council in Hong Kong on May 26, 2020.Police rules and procedures on chokeholds and restraints vary internationally. In Belgium, police instructor Stany Durieux says he reprimands trainees, docking them points, “every time I see a knee applied to the spinal column.” “It is also forbidden to lean on a suspect completely, as this can crush his rib cage and suffocate him,” he said. Condemned by police and experts in the United States, Floyd’s death also drew criticism from officers abroad who disassociated themselves from the behavior of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. He was charged with third-degree murder after he was filmed pushing down with his knee on Floyd’s neck until Floyd stopped crying out that he couldn’t breathe and eventually stopped moving. In Israel, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said “there is no tactic or protocol that calls to put pressure on the neck or airway.” In Germany, officers are allowed to briefly exert pressure on the side of a suspect’s head but not on the neck, says Germany‘s GdP police union. In the U.K., the College of Policing says prone suspects should be placed on their side or in a sitting, kneeling or standing position “as soon as practicable.” Guidance on the website of London’s police force discourages the use of neck restraints, saying “any form of pressure to the neck area can be highly dangerous.” Even within countries, procedures can vary. The thick Patrol Guide, hundreds of pages long, for the New York Police Department says in bold capitals that officers “SHALL NOT” use chokeholds and should “avoid actions which may result in chest compression, such as sitting, kneeling, or standing on a subject’s chest or back, thereby reducing the subject’s ability to breathe.” But the so-called “sleeper hold,” where pressure is applied to the neck with an arm, blocking blood flow, was allowed for police in San Diego before Floyd’s death triggered a shift. Police Chief David Nisleit said he would this week order an end to the tactic. Gendarmes in France are discouraged from pressing down on the chests and vital organs of prone suspects and are no longer taught to apply pressure to the neck, said Col. Laurent De La Follye de Joux, head of training for the force. “You don’t need to be a doctor to understand that it is dangerous,” he said. But instructions for the National Police, the other main law and order force in France, appear to give its officers more leeway. Issued in 2015, they say pressure on a prone suspect’s chest “should be as short as possible.” Christophe Rouget, a police union official who briefed lawmakers for their deliberations in March about the proposal to ban suffocating techniques, said if officers don’t draw pistols or use stun-guns then immobilizing people face-down is the safest option, stopping suspects from kicking out at arresting officers. “We don’t have 5,000 options,” he said. “These techniques are used by all the police in the world because they represent the least amount of danger. The only thing is that they have to be well used. In the United States, we saw that it wasn’t well used, with pressure applied in the wrong place and for too long.” He added that the “real problem” in France is that officers don’t get enough follow-up training after being taught restraints in police school. “You need to repeat them often to do them well,” he said. 
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French police fired tear gas early on Wednesday to disperse protesters marking the 2016 death of a black man in a police operation that some have likened to the death of George Floyd in the United States. Reuters reporters saw police use tear gas after some of the protesters started fires and set up barricades around the Avenue de Clichy in northern Paris, which was littered with rubbish and broken glass. Thousands of people assembled earlier for a demonstration in memory of Adama Traore, a 24-year-old black Frenchman who died in a 2016 police operation. The protesters were defying a police ban imposed because of the risk of disorder and the danger of spreading the novel coronavirus. The demonstration had drawn attention on social media of people supporting the “Black Lives Matter” movement and those backing U.S. protests in response to the May 25 killing in Minneapolis of Floyd, a 46-year-old African American who died after a white policeman pinned his neck under a knee for nearly nine minutes. Traore’s family blamed excessive force during his arrest, when he was pinned down by three gendarmes. Successive pathology reports have reached conflicting conclusions over whether his death two hours later resulted from asphyxiation or other factors including pre-existing conditions. 
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French citizens are among the first to be able to download the government-sponsored StopCovid app as the government begins coronavirus contact tracing through cell phones.The release of the public health StopCovid app Tuesday coincides with phase three of the government’s re-opening plan, during which restaurants, high schools and universities once again welcome students and patrons.The coronavirus has claimed nearly 29,000 French lives. Using a Bluetooth signal from cell phones, the app collects the presence of nearby anonymous users. If an individual tests positive, the app notifies those they were in close contact with for a minimum of 15 minutes so they can take the proper health protocols.Other EU nations are developing similar apps in the hopes that they will mitigate COVID-19 flare-ups as the bloc’s economies begin to re-open.The Euronews television channel reported in May that the continent was in disagreement over best practices for a pan-European app, with Switzerland and Spain exiting the initiative due to privacy concerns and Germany seeking assistance from tech giants Apple and Google.France and Britain reportedly rejected external backing, preferring to develop their own tech infrastructure.The French system differs from software jointly developed by Apple and Google in that it stores user information on a centralized, government-run server, rather than storing the data directly on mobile phones.The French government denies claims from critics that the app mimics a surveillance state.“The problem with a centralized protocol is that you have to be confident and to trust your state but we’re in a democratic state, we have checks and balances,” Cédric O, France’s junior minister for the digital economy, told the AP.An article in Le Monde newspaper published May 29 stated that officials preferred not to leave the security of citizen’s data to private firms, necessitating the need for a centralized, government-run system.The government says the app does not utilize location tracking and deletes user data after 14 days, the amount of time it takes the virus to exhibit symptoms.The project’s website listed transparency, regard for public health, and the respect and protection of an individual’s privacy as a top priority.Although use of the app overwhelming passed the upper body of parliament last week, some lawmakers expressed apprehension, citing additional security concerns and fears that the app would not be effective if the population does not use it. 
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U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, a close political ally of President Donald Trump, has resigned after little more than two years in the job, an embassy spokesman said on Tuesday.
 
“Ambassador Grenell resigned from his post and the State Department on June 1,” said the spokesman.
 
Robin Quinville, deputy chief of mission at the embassy, will take over as Charge d’Affaires until a new ambassador is confirmed but the spokesman said any questions on Grenell’s successor should be directed to the White House.
 
In his two years as ambassador, Grenell has not been shy to voice criticism of German policies on NATO and its involvement in the NordStream 2 gas pipeline from Russia.
 
Germany’s dpa news agency reported last month that Grenell would step down soon after the U.S. Senate confirmed Representative John Ratcliffe, also a political ally of Trump, as the permanent director of national intelligence (DNI).
 
In February, Trump had named 53-year old Grenell as acting DNI.
  
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World outrage at George Floyd’s death in the U.S. was growing Tuesday as the European Union’s top diplomat said the bloc was “shocked and appalled” by it and thousands marched in Australia’s largest city.
In France, protests were planned for the evening in Paris and across the country after calls from the family of a French black man who died shortly after he was arrested by police in 2016. A protest was also planned in The Hague, Netherlands.
Floyd died last week after he was pinned to the pavement by a white police officer in Minneapolis who put his knee on the handcuffed black man’s neck until he stopped breathing. His death set off protests that spread across America.  
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s remarks in Brussels were the strongest so far to come out of the 27-nation bloc, saying Floyd’s death was a result of an abuse of power.
Borrell told reporters that “like the people of the United States, we are shocked and appalled by the death of George Floyd.” He underlined that Europeans “support the right to peaceful protest, and also we condemn violence and racism of any kind, and for sure, we call for a de-escalation of tensions.”
Protesters around the world have expressed solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyd’s death.
Thousands marched through downtown Sydney on Tuesday. The protesters in Australia’s largest city chanted, “I can’t breathe” — some of the final words of both Floyd and David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015 while being restrained by five guards.
The demonstrators carried placards reading, “Black Lives Matter,” “Aboriginal Lives Matter,” “White Silence is Violence” and, referring to those protesting in cities across the U.S., “We See You, We Hear Your, We Stand With You.” Other placards read, “We’re here because they aren’t,” with depictions of Floyd and Dungay.
The protesters, who appeared to number around 3,000, marched from Hyde Park to the New South Wales state Parliament, with plans to continue to the U.S. Consulate.
“It’s just gut-wrenching the climate of what’s happening in America, and it’s also happening here in Australia, though it’s subtle. Racism is real for me,” said one of the protesters, Aoatua Lee.
Around 2,000 demonstrators had gathered in Australia’s west coast city of Perth on Monday night to peacefully protest Floyd’s death, and rallies are planned for other Australian cities this week.
An indigenous Australian lawmaker called on governments to use Floyd’s death as an opportunity to reduce deaths of indigenous people in custody.  
Linda Burney, the opposition spokeswoman on indigenous Australians, said Tuesday that more than 430 indigenous people had died in Australian police custody since 1991.
“I think we should be using it as an opportunity,” Burney told Australian Broadcasting Corp., referring to Floyd’s death. “Whether we like it or not, it doesn’t take much for racism to come out of the underbelly of this country.”
“It seems to me that there are lots of things that state and territory governments could do, and the federal government could do to lower the number of Aboriginal people in custody,” she added.
While indigenous adults make up only 2% of the Australian population, they account for 27% of the prison population.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese backed Burney’s call. “There are far too many indigenous Australians who are incarcerated today. As a percentage of the population, this is a tragedy and it’s one that must be addressed as an absolute national priority,” Albanese told reporters.
Meanwhile, more African leaders are speaking up over the killing of Floyd.
“It cannot be right that, in the 21st century, the United States, this great bastion of democracy, continues to grapple with the problem of systemic racism,” Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, said in a statement, adding that black people the world over are shocked and distraught.
Kenyan opposition leader and former Prime Pinister Raila Odinga offered a prayer for the U.S., “that there be justice and freedom for all human beings who call America their country.”
Like some in Africa who have spoken out, Odinga also noted troubles at home, saying the judging of people by character instead of skin color “is a dream we in Africa, too, owe our citizens.”
And South Africa’s finance minister, Tito Mboweni, recalled leading a small protest outside the U.S. Embassy several years ago over the apparent systemic killings of blacks. Mboweni said the U.S. ambassador at the time, Patrick Gaspard, “invited me to his office and said: ‘What you see is nothing, it is much worse.'”
In Europe on Monday, thousands spilled across streets in Amsterdam to denounce police brutality, and those demonstrating in Paris urged the French government to take police violence more seriously and held up signs like “Racism is suffocating us.”
Some government leaders have seen the U.S. unrest as a chance to highlight what they see as American hypocrisy on protest movements at home versus abroad.  
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam questioned the foreign criticism over an imminent national security law being imposed in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
“They take their own country’s national security very seriously, but for the security of our country, especially the situation in Hong Kong, they are looking at it through tinted glasses,” Lam said Tuesday.
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Protests have erupted in cities around the world in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the United States. The protests follow the death in Minnesota of George Floyd, a 46-year old black man, last week in police custody.  In central London, demonstrations turned violent Sunday as police tried to clear a road junction outside Parliament. Police made 23 arrests. Protesters accused the police of triggering the violence, an accusation that authorities denied. “We came out here peacefully to protest the injustice in the U.K.,” one demonstrator told reporters. “It’s now a global issue with the murder of George Floyd, everything that’s going on in the world.’Hundreds of people also gathered in central London’s Trafalgar Square chanting, “George Floyd, Say His Name.” Demonstrators also chanted, “I Can’t Breathe” as they marched on the U.S. Embassy — the words spoken by Floyd as Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes as Floyd lay handcuffed and prone on the ground after he was arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit bank note. He was pronounced dead later that day. Chauvin was arrested Friday and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.Demonstrators stop a bus as they block the street in Sloane Square in London on May 31, 2020 after marching on the US embassy to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly…Smaller protests broke out in the south London suburbs, home to many ethnic minority communities. “Can you imagine, we are in a whole world pandemic, and people are still brutalizing innocent people,” said a protest organizer named Aba. “When they stop, when police stop brutalizing innocent black people, then we’ll stop.”   The U.S. protests resonate with minority communities in Britain, said lawyer and activist Shola Mos-Shogbamimu. “Police brutality exists in the United Kingdom. Racial profiling exists in the United Kingdom, and it’s existed for the longest time,” Mos-Shogbamimu told VOA in an interview Monday. “And it means for a lot of black people, particularly young black men, that they are targeted simply because of the color of their skin. What you are seeing right now is we’re getting more mobile phone (video) evidence. And social media platforms have become the wireless platform to communicate this information worldwide, in real time, instantly.” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Sunday that the government wants to see a de-escalation of tensions in the United States and for people in the U.S. to “come together.”Some critics, including many British lawmakers, argue the demonstrators were putting lives at risk by not adhering to social distancing guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic. “Racism did not stop when (the) coronavirus hit the planet,” Mos-Shogbamimu said.People protest in Berlin, Germany, May 31, 2020 after the violent death of the African-American George Floyd by a white policeman in the USA against racism and police violence, among other things with a sign “Who do call when police murders”.Hundreds of protesters also gathered in Berlin over the weekend. Remnants of Germany’s Berlin Wall were daubed with graffiti mourning the death of Floyd and demanding justice. Several thousand people marched in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, and in the capital, Wellington, and other areas Monday to show solidarity with U.S. demonstrators.  Some 4,000 New Zealand protesters demonstrate against the killing of Minneapolis man George Floyd in a Black Lives Matter protest in Auckland, June 1, 2020. 
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