US opens consulate in Greenland capital

Copenhagen (AFP)
June 10, 2020

The United States has opened a consulate in Greenland's capital Nuuk, the US embassy in Copenhagen said Wednesday, nearly a year after Denmark rejected President Donald Trump's interest in buying its vast Arctic territory.

"The consulate is another positive sign of the strong collaboration between the U.S. government and the Greenlandic and Danish governments," said US ambassador Carla Sands.

Washington received the green light from Copenhagen to set up the consulate last December.

At the end of April, Greenland said it had accepted an offer of $12.1 million in US funds for mining, tourism and education in the massive and coveted territory.

Greenland has its own parliament, but foreign relations are run by Copenhagen and the economy relies heavily on Danish subsidies.

Rich in natural resources, including oil, gas, gold, diamonds, uranium and zinc, and with the prospect of new maritime routes as a result of global warming, Greenland has attracted attention from the United States, China and Russia.

In August 2019, Trump floated the idea of buying Greenland, an autonomous territory under Denmark. Both Greenland and Denmark rejected his interest.

The last US consulate in Nuuk closed down in 1953.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/US_opens_consulate_in_Greenland_capital_999.html.

Trump directs US to develop new Icebreaking fleet to counter Russia, China

Washington DC (Sputnik)
Jun 10, 2020

NATO member states have doubled their military activity in the northern polar region over the past five years, the Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador at Large for Arctic Cooperation Nikolay Korchunov said on 22 May.

The US government has been tasked with an inter-agency program to develop a new fleet of icebreakers to project American national interests in the Arctic and Antarctic regions as soon as possible, President Donald Trump has announced in a memorandum.

"The United States will develop and execute a polar security icebreaking fleet acquisition program that supports our national interests in the Arctic and Antarctic regions", the memorandum to the secretaries of state, defense, homeland security, commerce, energy, as well as the Office of Management and Budget and national security adviser said.

According to the memo, the fleet will include "use cases in the Arctic that span the full range of national and economic security missions (including the facilitation of resource exploration and exploitation and undersea cable laying and maintenance) that may be executed by a class of medium PSCs, as well as analysis of how these use cases differ with respect to the anticipated use of heavy PSCs for these same activities".

The new fleet must be equipped with "assets and resources, capable of ensuring a persistent United States presence in the Arctic and Antarctic regions in support of national interests and in furtherance of the National Security Strategy and the National Defense Strategy", the memorandum said.

The assets will include unmanned aviation; surface and undersea systems; space systems; sensors and other systems to achieve and maintain maritime domain awareness; command and control systems; secure communications and data transfer systems; and intelligence-collection systems, the memorandum said.

The assets will potentially have a defensive armament adequate to defend against threats by near-peer competitors and the potential for nuclear-powered propulsion, the memorandum added.

The memorandum comes after Russian Envoy at Large for Arctic Cooperation Nikolay Korchunov stated that NATO member states, as well as non-NATO countries, have become increasingly involved in military activity in the northern polar region in recent years.

On 1 May, the US Sixth Fleet conducted a joint naval anti-submarine warfare exercise with the United Kingdom in the Norwegian Sea. Four ships, a US submarine, and a Boeing P8-A reconnaissance aircraft participated in the drills.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Trump_directs_US_to_develop_new_Icebreaking_fleet_to_counter_Russia_China_999.html.

Democrats propose sweeping police overhaul; Trump criticizes

June 09, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats in Congress proposed a far-reaching overhaul of police procedures and accountability Monday, a sweeping legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans in the hands of law enforcement.

The political outlook is deeply uncertain for the legislation in a polarized election year. President Donald Trump is staking out a tough "law and order” approach in the face of the outpouring of demonstrations and demands to re-imagine policing in America.

“We cannot settle for anything less than transformative structural change,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, drawing on the nation’s history of slavery. Before unveiling the package, House and Senate Democrats held a moment of silence at the Capitol's Emancipation Hall, reading the names of George Floyd and many others killed during police interactions. They knelt for 8 minutes and 46 seconds — now a symbol of police brutality and violence — the length of time prosecutors say Floyd was pinned under a white police officer’s knee before he died.

Trump, who met with law enforcement officials at the White House, characterized Democrats as having “gone CRAZY!” As activists beyond Capitol Hill call to restructure police departments and even to “ defund the police,” the president tweeted, “LAW & ORDER, NOT DEFUND AND ABOLISH THE POLICE.” He declared later, “We won't be dismantling our police.”

Democratic leaders pushed back, saying their proposal would not eliminate police departments — a decision for cities and states — but establish new standards and oversight. Joe Biden, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, “does not believe that police should be defunded,” said spokesman Andrew Bates.

The Justice in Policing Act, the most ambitious law enforcement reform from Congress in years, confronts several aspects of policing that have come under strong criticism, especially as more and more police violence is captured on cellphone video and shared widely across the nation and the world.

The package would limit legal protections for police, create a national database of excessive-force incidents and ban police choke holds, among other changes. It would revise the federal criminal police misconduct statute to make it easier to prosecute officers who are involved in “reckless” misconduct and it would change “qualified immunity” protections to more broadly enable damage claims against police in lawsuits.

The legislation would ban racial profiling, boost requirements for police body cameras and limit the transfer of military equipment to local jurisdictions. Overall, the bill seeks to provide greater transparency of police behavior in several ways. For one, it would grant subpoena power to the Justice Department to conduct “pattern and practice” investigations of potential misconduct and help states conduct independent investigations.

And it would create a “National Police Misconduct Registry,” a database to try to prevent officers from transferring from one department to another with past misconduct undetected, the draft says. A long-sought federal anti-lynching bill that has stalled in Congress is included in the package.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., a co-author with Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., and Democratic senators will convene a hearing on the legislation Wednesday. “The world is witnessing the birth of a new movement in this country,” said Bass, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, which is leading the effort.

While Democrats are expected to swiftly approve the legislation this month, it does not go as far as some activists want. The outlook for passage in the Republican-held Senate is slim. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose Louisville hometown faces unrest after the police shooting of Breonna Taylor in her home, said he would take a look at potential Senate legislation.

It is unclear if law enforcement and the powerful police unions will back any of the proposed changes or if congressional Republicans will peel off some of their own proposals. Republicans are likely to stick with Trump, and GOP campaign officials bashed efforts underway in some cities to reallocate police funds to other community services.

Yet McConnell was central to passage of a 2018 criminal justice sentencing overhaul the president signed into law, and some key GOP senators have expressed interest in more streamlined changes to policing practices and accountability.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who marched with protesters Sunday, told reporters late Monday at the Capitol that he is working with other Republican senators "to see if we can’t fashion a piece of legislation which could receive bipartisan support to make some changes to the way we do our policing.”

The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has said his panel intends to hold a hearing to review use of force and other issues, and other GOP lawmakers have suggested Floyd's death could spark more modest changes.

Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, who marched in support of Floyd in Houston, penned an op-ed Monday about how his own black father instructed him to respond if he was pulled over by the police, and suggested proposals for changes in police practices.

What started with the Black Lives Matter movement after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., has transformed with the killings of other black Americans into a diverse and mainstream effort calling for changing the way America polices its population, advocates say.

“I can’t breathe” has become a rallying cry for protesters. Floyd pleaded with police that he couldn’t breathe, echoing the phrase Eric Garner said while in police custody in 2014 before his death in New York.

“All we’ve ever wanted is to be treated equally — not better, not worse,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. Biden's own platform reflects much of the approach from congressional Democrats, and his former presidential primary rivals, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.Y., and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., are co-authors of the package in the Senate.

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Massive, peaceful protests across US demand police reform

June 07, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Massive demonstrations against racism and police brutality filled some of the nation’s most famous cityscapes Saturday, with tens of thousands of people marching peacefully in scenes that were more often festive than tense.

Wearing masks and urging fundamental change, protesters gathered in dozens of places from coast to coast while mourners in North Carolina waited for hours to glimpse the golden coffin carrying the body of native son George Floyd, the black man whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police has galvanized the expanding movement.

Collectively, it was perhaps the largest one-day mobilization since Floyd died 12 days ago and came as many cities began lifting curfews that authorities imposed following initial spasms of arson, assaults and smash-and-grab raids on businesses. Authorities have softened restrictions as the number of arrests plummeted.

Demonstrations also reached four other continents, ending in clashes in two European cities. In the U.S., Seattle police used flash bang devices and pepper spray to disperse protesters hurling rocks, bottles and explosives, just a day after city leaders temporarily banned one kind of tear gas.

The largest U.S. demonstration appeared to be in Washington, where protesters flooded streets closed to traffic. On a hot, humid day, they gathered at the Capitol, on the National Mall and in neighborhoods. Some turned intersections into dance floors. Tents offered snacks and water.

Pamela Reynolds said she came seeking greater police accountability. “The laws are protecting them,” said the 37-year-old African American teacher. The changes she wants include a federal ban on police chokeholds and a requirement that officers wear body cameras.

At the White House, which was fortified with new fencing and extra security measures, chants and cheers could be heard in waves. President Donald Trump, who has urged authorities to crack down on unrest, downplayed the demonstration, tweeting: “Much smaller crowd in D.C. than anticipated."

Elsewhere, the backdrops included some of the nation’s most famous landmarks. Peaceful marchers filed across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, where officers pulled back on enforcing a curfew that has led to confrontations. They walked the boulevards of Hollywood and a Nashville, Tennessee, street famous for country music-themed bars and restaurants.

They also gathered in places as far flung as a St. Louis suburb and cities in the Deep South. Many wore masks — a reminder of the danger that the protests could exacerbate the spread of the coronavirus.

Roderick Sweeney, who is black, said he was overwhelmed to see the large turnout of white protesters waving signs that said “Black Lives Matter” in San Francisco. “We’ve had discussions in our family and among friends that nothing is going to change until our white brothers and sisters voice their opinion,” said Sweeney, 49. The large turnout of white protesters “is sending a powerful message.”

In Philadelphia and Chicago, marchers chanted, carried signs and occasionally knelt in silence. At a massive showing near the Philadelphia Museum of Art and its famous “Rocky” steps, protesters chanted “No justice, no peace!” before heading for City Hall.

Seattle police said on Twitter that several officers were injured by “improvised explosives” thrown by a crowd. Officers responded with pepper spray. Earlier, a large crowd of medical workers, many in lab coats and scrubs, marched to City Hall, holding signs reading, “Police violence and racism are a public health emergency” and “Nurses kneel with you, not on you” — a reference to how a white officer pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for several minutes.

Atop a parking garage in downtown Atlanta, a group of black college band alumni serenaded protesters with a tuba-heavy mix of tunes. Standing within earshot, business owner Leah Aforkor Quaye said it was her first time hitting the streets.

“This makes people so uncomfortable, but the only way things are happening is if we make people uncomfortable,” said Quaye, who is black. In Raeford, North Carolina, a town near Floyd’s birthplace, people lined up outside a Free Will Baptist church, waiting to enter in small groups. At a private memorial service, mourners sang along with a choir. At the front of the chapel was a large photo of Floyd and a portrait of him adorned with an angel’s wings and halo.

“It could have been me. It could have been my brother, my father, any of my friends who are black,” said Erik Carlos of nearby Fayetteville. “It made me feel very vulnerable at first.” Floyd's body will go to Houston, where he lived before Minneapolis, for another memorial in the coming days.

Protesters and their supporters in public office say they're determined to turn the outpouring into change, notably overhauling policing policies. Many marchers urged officials to “defund the police," which some painted in enormous yellow letters on the street leading to the White House near a “Black Lives Matter” mural that the mayor had added a day earlier.

Theresa Bland, 68, a retired teacher and real estate agent protesting at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, envisioned a broader agenda. “I’m looking at affordable housing, political justice, prison reform,” she said.

Some change already has come. Minneapolis officials have agreed to ban chokeholds and neck restraints and require that officers stop colleagues who are using improper force. California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state’s police-training program to stop teaching officers a neck hold that blocks blood flowing to the brain.

The police chief in Bellevue, a wealthy city near Seattle, largely banned officers from using neck restraints, while police in Reno, Nevada, updated their use-of-force policy. Congressional Democrats are preparing a sweeping package of police reforms, which is expected to include changes to immunity provisions and creating a database of use-of-force incidents. Revamped training requirements are planned, too, among them a ban on chokeholds.

The prospects of reforms clearing a divided Congress are unclear. While police in some places have knelt in solidarity with protesters, their treatment of some marchers also has generated more tension.

Two officers in Buffalo, New York, were charged Saturday with second-degree assault after a video earlier this week showed them shoving a 75-year-old protester, who smashed his head on the pavement. Both pleaded not guilty.

Most protests in Europe were peaceful. In London, however, clashes with police erupted after thousands gathered amid a cold rain. In the French city of Marseille, authorities fired tear gas and pepper spray as protesters hurled bottles and rocks.

Back in North Carolina, the Rev. Christopher Stackhouse recounted the circumstances of Floyd's death for the congregation. “It took 8 minutes and 46 seconds for him to die," Stackhouse said at the memorial service. "But it took 401 years to put the system in place so nothing would happen.”

Pritchard reported from Los Angeles and Foreman from Raeford, North Carolina. Associated Press staff from around the world contributed to this report, including Jeff Chiu in San Francisco; Jill Colvin in Washington; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio; John Leicester in Paris; and David Crary and Brian Mahoney in New York.

Washington protesters express optimism after week on edge

June 07, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — On Monday, they were forcibly removed from the street by law enforcement. On Saturday, they danced. The tens of thousands of racially diverse demonstrators who flooded Washington to protest injustice and police brutality reshaped the mood of a city that has been on edge this week. Bursts of looting and violence early in the week prompted a dramatic clampdown by law enforcement that gave the nation's capital the feeling of an occupied city, complete with military vehicles, helicopters buzzing low to the skyline and National Guard troops on patrol.

But on Saturday, go-go music — a distinctive D.C. offshoot of funk — blared from a truck that looked more like a parade float. Impromptu dance parties popped up. A black man shared a fist bump with a black police officer. People used chalk to write messages of support on the street.

The purpose of the protest was somber: to demand changes to police practices and pay homage to George Floyd, the black man killed by Minneapolis police. But the displays of levity, unfolding against the backdrop of damaged buildings marked with graffiti, amounted to a moment of catharsis for a city and nation in crisis.

Some said they saw the beginning of a new movement. “This is us walking across the Pettus Bridge,” said Kendyll Myles, a 33-year-old project manager, referring to site of the iconic 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Alabama. “This is that type of awakening that our country needed.”

The scene on Saturday was starkly different from earlier this week when law enforcement moved aggressively to push back protesters from a park in front of the White House. Within minutes, President Donald Trump walked across the park to appear before cameras at a church where he held up a Bible, but didn't offer any prayers. The episode has been widely criticized.

As demonstrations are expected to spill into another week, there are questions about whether the scope of the protests can become something more durable. Unlike the major Washington protests of the past, Saturday's events weren't strongly organized. In some cases, they were mini-marches that began in residential neighborhoods before converging on 16th Street, one of the major roads leading to the White House, where Trump spent the day without any public appearances.

Many protesters carried signs urging participants to vote with the passion they brought to the streets. The Rev. Al Sharpton has said he's organizing a March on Washington for late August that would energize voters heading into the fall presidential campaign.

There were signs of cultural change. Those who led demonstrators in chants were almost exclusively people of color. Several white people who were approached for an interview demurred, saying that white people do enough talking and that this was a moment for their black and brown counterparts to have the spotlight and set the agenda.

That's one reason some black protesters said they thought this moment was different from previous demonstrations against police brutality. The fact that large numbers of white people would march alongside them fueled some hope that change might happen.

“You can finally see it, the different races out here,” said Carl Sirls, a 26-year-old airline worker. “It's not just black people. It's not just white people. It's everyone.” Pamela Reyolds said she hoped the massive size of the crowd and the diversity of the participants would help build momentum behind reforms including a ban on police chokeholds and a requirement for law enforcement to wear body cameras.

“It took protest, it took rioting to happen,” the 37-year-old teacher said. “But I think they're finally listening and they're seeing that this is everybody's fight.” There were still plenty of signs of anger on Saturday.

Outside the FBI headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, a protestor moved close to a line of law enforcement and shouted they had no right to patrol the city. A few blocks away at the Trump International Hotel, protestors regularly shouted epithets at the building. One man used a bullhorn to ask police how they could justify guarding a building associated with a president who has backed aggression toward protesters.

More broadly, the expressions of hope don't mask the deeper challenges facing Washington or the nation. The city is home to one of the largest income inequality gaps in the country, according to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. The racial divide is stark and has grown as longtime black neighborhoods have gentrified, sending home prices soaring. The coronavirus has taken a disproportionate toll on the black community.

Mayor Muriel Bowser is under pressure to reduce funding for the city's police and reinvest that money elsewhere. The local chapter of Black Lives Matter derided Bowser's widely publicized move to paint Black Lives Matter across one of the streets near the White House.

“This is performative and a distraction from her active counter organizing to our demands to decrease the police budget and invest in the community,” it said on Twitter. But as Bowser strolled that section of the street, the crowd in this overwhelmingly Democratic city burst into applause for a woman who is increasingly the subject of Trump's ire. Art Lindy, a fifth-generation Washingtonian, shouted “Vice President Bowser” as she walked by.

Bowser “has done an incredible job standing up to the face of federal power,” the 56-year-old construction manager said. A few blocks north, Jake Mathai was passing out free bottles of water to any demonstrator who needed relief from the heat and humidity. He said it was the least he could do for protestors and expressed particular admiration of younger people who showed up.

“When I was 18, I was never doing this kind of thing,” the 36-year-old said. “These kids are going to be me in 18 years. But much better because I wasn't doing this.”

Demonstrators vow to sustain momentum until change happens

June 06, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Protesters stirred by the death of George Floyd vowed Friday to turn an extraordinary outpouring of grief into a sustained movement as demonstrations shifted to a calmer, but no less determined focus on addressing racial injustice.

In Minneapolis, where Floyd died in police custody, the city agreed to ban police chokeholds and require officers to intervene any time they see unauthorized force by another officer. The changes are part of a stipulation between the city and state officials who launched a civil rights investigation into Floyd’s death. The City Council was expected to approve the agreement, which will be enforceable in court.

The country’s most significant demonstrations in a half-century — rivaling those during the civil rights and Vietnam War eras — resumed for an 11th day nationwide with continued momentum as the mood largely shifted from explosive anger to more peaceful calls for change. Formal and impromptu memorials to Floyd stretched from Minneapolis to North Carolina, where family members will gather Saturday to mourn him, and beyond.

Josiah Roebuck, a university student who used social media to help gather 100 people to demonstrate Friday in an Atlanta suburb, is confident the momentum will last. “Once you start, you’re going to see this every day,” said Roebuck, who has attended multiple protests. “I just want minorities to be represented properly.”

Protests across the country had initially been marred by the setting of fires and smashing of windows, but Friday marked the third day of more subdued demonstrations. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who eulogized Floyd at a heartfelt tribute in Minneapolis on Thursday, said Friday that plans are in the works for a commemorative march on Washington on Aug. 28, the anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech. Sharpton said the event would be a way to maintain momentum as the legal cases of the four officers charged in Floyd's death move forward.

Floyd’s body was being taken to North Carolina, the state where he was born 46 years ago, for a public viewing and private service for family Saturday. Then in Texas, where Floyd lived most of his life, services culminating in a private burial will take place Monday and Tuesday.

In Washington, city workers and volunteers painted “Black Lives Matter” in enormous yellow letters on the street leading to the White House on Friday in a sign of local leaders’ embrace of the protest movement. The mural stretched across 16th Street for two blocks, ending just before the church where President Donald Trump staged a photo-op earlier this week after federal officers forcibly cleared a peaceful demonstration to make way for the president and his entourage.

“The section of 16th Street in front of the White House is now officially ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza,’” Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a tweet shortly after the mural was completed. The project follows Bowser’s verbal clashes with the Trump administration over the response to protests over Floyd’s killing. Still, the local chapter of Black Lives Matter took a swipe at Bowser on Twitter by saying the project distracts from their efforts to shift funds from local police to community investment.

There were zero arrests during demonstrations in the city Thursday and Friday and Bowser canceled the curfew that had been in place since Monday. She said she will decide Saturday morning if it will be reinstated.

Meanwhile, in a sign protesters’ voices were being heard, more symbols of slavery and the Confederacy came down. Mobile, Alabama, removed a statue of a Confederate naval officer after days of protests there, while Fredericksburg, Virginia, removed a 176-year-old slave auction block after several years of efforts by the NAACP.

Community activists were working to convert anger and grief into long-term action. Black Lives Matter Alliance Broward circulated a sign-up sheet at a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, protest that drew 1,500 names of people who want to stay involved. The group followed up with each person this week suggesting simple actions such as emailing or calling to demand local change.

“We are taking more of the strategy of: ‘How do we actually invest people’s energy beyond protesting?’” said Tifanny Burks, a community organizer. “We are thinking long term.” This weekend, they were building a church altar with the names of victims killed by local police and having their family members speak. On Monday, they plan a workshop to help people engage at the local level, including mobilizing in upcoming elections.

“Every single day it’s growing from people who want to get more involved, who want to take more actions, so we’re going to be mobilizing those folks,” Burks said. In Minneapolis, organizer Sam Martinez said regular meetings and a mailing list of about 5,000 has sustained the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, formed after the 2015 shooting death of Jamar Clark during a struggle with two white officers.

“We meet every week, because we know that’s what it takes,” Martinez said. Nakia Wallace, an organizer of protests in Detroit, said people were beginning to understand the movement's power. “The world is watching,” she said, adding: “The main strategy is to get people to collectively come out and make demands until those demands are met.”

For the past week in Richmond, Virginia, Austin Carroll, a 28-year-old musician, has spent six hours a day marching or protesting near a soaring statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which the governor agreed this week to remove.

Carroll, a member of Black Lives Matter, has strained his voice from yelling and his 6-year-old son, Levi, has blisters on his feet. But Carroll said they plan to continue to march every day until more changes come, including deescalation training for police.

“I am tired. My voice and legs are gone,” Carroll said. “We’re resting right now, but we’ll be back out here marching tonight.”

Amy reported from Atlanta and Williams from Detroit. AP journalists Kelli Kennedy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Jeff Baenen and Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia; Jonathan Drew in Durham, North Carolina, and reporters around the U.S. contributed.

George Floyd's death an American tragedy with global echoes

June 05, 2020

LONDON (AP) — When black men died at the hands of U.S. police in recent years, the news made international headlines. The name of George Floyd has reached the world’s streets. Since his death while being detained by Minneapolis police last week, Floyd’s face has been painted on walls from Nairobi, Kenya to Idlib, Syria. His name has been inked on the shirts of professional soccer players and chanted by crowds from London to Cape Town to Tel Aviv to Sydney.

The outpouring of outrage and support reflects the power and reach of the United States, a country whose best and worst facets fascinate the world. It also reflects that deep-seated racial inequalities are not just an American phenomenon.

“This happened in the United States, but it happens in France, it happens everywhere,” said Xavier Dintimille, who attended a thousands-strong Paris protest to show solidarity with U.S. demonstrators and anger over a death closer to home.

The Paris demonstrators declared “We are all George Floyd,” but also invoked the name of Adama Traore, a 24-year-old Frenchman of Malian origin who died in police custody in 2016. The circumstances are still under investigation by justice authorities.

The world is used to watching American stories on TV and movie screens, and intrigued by a country founded on principles of equality and liberty but scarred by a tortured racial history of slavery and segregation. Viewed from abroad, images of U.S. violence and racial divisions can sometimes seem like part of a uniquely American malaise.

Not this time. When people around the world watched Floyd struggling for breath as a white police officer knelt on his neck, many saw reflections of violence and injustice in their own cities and towns. They heard echoes of their own experiences or those of family members, neighbors or friends.

“The same thing is happening here. It’s no different,” said Isaak Kabenge, who joined more than 1,000 other people at a protest in Sweden’s capital, Stockholm. “I got stopped (by police) two weeks ago. It happens all the time.”

In London, thousands of people chanted “Say his name - George Floyd!” as they marched through the city. But they also invoked names from nearby, including Stephen Lawrence, an 18-year-old black Londoner stabbed to death in 1993 as he waited for a bus. A bungled police investigation triggered a public inquiry, which concluded that the London police force was “institutionally racist.”

London-born “Star Wars” actor John Boyega, who was 1-year-old when Stephen Lawrence died, linked Lawrence, Floyd and other black victims of violence in a passionate speech to the crowd. “Black lives have always mattered,” Boyega said. “We have always been important. We have always meant something.”

More than 160 people in Britain have died while in police custody in the past decade, and figures show that black people are twice as likely as white people to die under such circumstances. In the London suburb of Croydon, hundreds of protesters gathered this week —standing the required coronavirus social distance of 2 meters (6½ feet) apart —and took a knee in memory both of Floyd and of Olaseni Lewis. The local man died in 2010 while being restrained by police at a psychiatric hospital.

Lewis' mother, Ajibola Lewis, has campaigned to tighten the rules on the use of restraint by police. She said she couldn’t bear to watch the widely circulated footage of Floyd’s death. “Many other families, we have heard our loved ones say ‘I can’t breathe,'” she told the BBC. “People think it’s only happening in America. It’s not. It’s happening here.”

Floyd’s death is another shocking turn for a technology-fueled world unsettled by disease, coronavirus lockdowns and massive unemployment. The speed of social media helped Floyd’s final moments in Minneapolis spread around the world, and amplified the shock, anguish and anger they evoked.

Floyd’s death also dropped a spark into cities already smoldering from the coronavirus pandemic. In many countries, lockdowns imposed to slow the spread of the virus confined young people indoors for weeks. Their pent-up energy has been released into the streets as diverse, youthful crowds protest Floyd's treatment, often in defiance of bans on mass gatherings.

In many places, protesters have tried to practice social distancing, but the attempts often fell apart in the heat of the moment. Some demonstrators wore face masks to guard against the virus — a practical health measure made poignant by the addition of Floyd’s dying words, “I can’t breathe,” written across the front.

The new virus has sent economies around the world into nosedives, throwing millions out of work. It has also exposed social inequalities, both in the United States — where cities with large black populations have been among the hardest hit — and elsewhere.

In Britain, black and ethnic minority people are at greater risk of dying with COVID-19, and have also been levied a disproportionate number of the fines and arrests for breaking lockdown rules, according to official statistics.

In London, some demonstrators called out the name of Belly Mujinga, a railway ticket-seller who died of coronavirus in April, weeks after she was spat at by a man claiming to have COVID-19. Police said they found no evidence to support charges in her death.

Thousands more plan to take to the streets of cities around the world this weekend, mourning a man whose death they hope will bring permanent change, and looking to the United States as both an inspiration and a warning.

“Here I think it’s systematic, and we need to start doing something starting from small to make change,” said musician Jayda Makwana, who joined thousands of others at a protest in London’s Hyde Park. “I think the U.K. could learn so much from the U.S., because we don’t want it to get to the point that it is at in the U.S.”

Angela Charlton in Paris, David Keyton in Stockholm and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this story.