‘We will not be silent’: protests head into second weekend after George Floyd’s killing – live

Police have banned a third protest in Paris that had been planned for Saturday to condemn the action of police in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

Police cited a risk of spreading Covid-19 and fears of public unrest.

The police decree noted that social distancing regulations ban gatherings of more than 10 people.

Online posts called for people to gather on Saturday afternoon in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

Paris police had previously also banned two other planned gatherings on Saturday outside the US Embassy.

Protests have now spread right across the globe, with people marching in solidarity with those in the US and to call out issues of systemic racism in their own countries.

The rolling, global protests reflect rising anger over police treatment of ethnic minorities, sparked by the 25 May killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Demonstrations, however, have been limited by social-distancing curbs aiming at stopping the spread of Covid-19.

People are starting to take to the streets in Seoul, South Korea – it looks like all are wearing face masks and staying socially distanced.

In Tokyo, Japan people marched in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, while also protesting against police treatment of a Kurdish man in the city who says he was stopped while driving and shoved to the ground, leaving him with bruises.

“I want to show that there’s racism in Japan now,” said 17-year-old high school student Wakaba, who declined to give her family name.

She and her friend, Moe, held a sign saying: “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention”.

“No justice, no peace, no racist police,” the crowd chanted.

With pandemic restrictions in Bangkok, Thailand, activists were going online, asking for video and photos of people wearing black, raising their fists and holding signs, and explaining why they “stand united behind Black Lives Matter”.

The Thai protesters plan to gather on the video-meeting platform Zoom on Sunday and observe 8 minutes 46 seconds of silence – the period that George Floyd was filmed pinned under the officer’s knee.

In Brisbane, police estimated 10,000 people joined a peaceful protest, with many wrapping themselves in indigenous flags, calling for an end to police mistreatment of indigenous Australians.

In Sydney, a last-minute court decision overruled a coronavirus ban as several thousand people marched, amid a heavy police presence, chanting: “Whose lives matter? Black Lives matter.”

Rallies were also held in Melbourne, Adelaide and other Australian cities.

There has been a huge turnout at the Black Lives Matter rally in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland in Australia.

It is estimated tens of thousands marched through the streets protesting against the over-representation of First Nations people dying in police custody, and racism towards black people.

This is Jessica Murray, I’ll be steering the blog for the next few hours as the protests following George Floyd’s killing head into their second weekend – with action now taking place across the globe.

If you would like to get in touch to share your thoughts, stories or experiences, then please do:

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @journojess_

Ben Doherty, signing off for the evening (I’m in Australia). But our coverage continues on its peripatetic way around the world. I’m handing over to my colleague Jessica Murray in London.

Thanks all for your comments and contributions. Be well all of you, and stay safe.

As this man’s friend says: “Magnifico!”

The Guardian’s Laura Murphy-Oates, a Ngiyampaa Wailwan woman, is on the streets of Sydney.

For those internationally struggling with the Australian accents, the call-and-response chant is:

What do we want?

Justice.

When do we want it?

Now.

This is a powerful piece from Nina Robinson in Minneapolis.

In their own words: the protestors at the heart of America’s uprising.

Stacey Ray

How are you feeling?

Angry, disappointed, exhausted … but more than anything, just hurt. Because we all know somebody who’s been through the same thing, or we know somebody who could possibly go through the same thing.

I have two teenage sons, I have a brother, I have a boyfriend, a father. It just has to stop. This is home for me and seeing what happened to Jamar Clark [who was fatally shot in Minneapolis in 2015], seeing Philando Castile [who was fatally shot in St Paul, Minnesota, in 2019], and now seeing this right here – where we’re supposed to be “Minnesota nice”.

Jonathan McNeil Hardy

Did you participate in the protests?

I just got back to Minneapolis last night. You leave your city in one condition and then, you come back and it’s in two different conditions: one that you’re not used to but you don’t like seeing, and the other, which is just destruction. I’m frustrated. I just don’t want this to end, I don’t want it to go away – I want people to fight. I want people to fight responsibly, fight safely and fight without violence if necessary.

Kiyai Dorsey (left)

How are you healing?

This is our reality every day, whether people want to face that or not. And it’s felt worldwide this time. It’s just beautiful to see that solidarity everywhere else. It means a lot, for real. We just want to be heard. We want our lives to matter. You know, we want to be treated like everyone else.

Keta Daniel (right)

What is a message that you want to give to your community?

I want to give a personal message to all of my black community at this time: to take care of themselves and to take care of each other. This is really tough for all of us mentally. So don’t be pressured to be out on the frontlines, as much as we want to. Make sure to take time to rejuvenate and recollect. No matter what’s going on outside, it’s so important to do what makes you happy. Don’t lose that.

For all of its First Amendment proclamations, this is freedom of the press in the United States today. Poppy Noor reports.

Lanre Bakare reports that some of the UK’s most prestigious drama schools have apologised for not doing enough to combat racism on their campuses after being accused of hypocrisy over social media posts in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Some extraordinary examples of institutional racism cited in this piece.

Actor Dipo Ola, studying at the Oxford School of Drama, said there was a uniform experience for students of colour in drama schools: “systemic racism, from the top down”.

Ola said he was asked if he was “playing a slave” by another student when he appeared as Egeon in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors; was regularly mistaken for another black student who attended the school years before; and had his concerns dismissed when he drew attention to the lack of BAME staff and dearth of plays written by playwrights of colour.

“When you brought it up, you feel like a burden,” he said. “You felt like you were causing trouble. When we talk about race we’re seen as overreacting. There’s always that tinge.”

Sam Levin

The call to “defund the police” has become a rallying cry at protests across America this week, and some lawmakers appear to be listening.

Activists who have long fought to cut law enforcement budgets say they are seeing an unprecedented wave of support for their ideas, with some elected officials for the first time proposing budget reductions and divestments from police. Here’s what we know about the movement, and how cities and states are responding.

As nationwide protests hurtled toward a second weekend following the police killing of George Floyd, several cities and states are taking steps to reform controversial policing tactics, Maanvi Singh and Mario Koran report.

In Minneapolis, where Floyd died last Monday after a white officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, the city agreed to ban chokeholds and neck restraints by police and to require officers to try to stop any other officers they see using improper force. They marked the first concrete steps to remake the city’s police force since Floyd’s death.

The state human rights commissioner, Rebecca Lucero, said the changes were necessary to stop continuing harm to people of color “who have suffered generational pain and trauma as a result of systemic and institutional racism”.

“This is just a start,” Lucero said. “There is a lot more work to do here, and that work must and will be done with speed and community engagement.”