Top of The World: The EU has agreed to impose sanctions on Belarus, in response to the forced diversion of a commercial flight to detain activist and opposition journalist Roman Protasevich. And, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East following a deadly 11-day war between Israel and Hamas and vowed to aid Gaza. Also, Tuesday marks one year since the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Closing arguments began with Minneapolis on edge against a repeat of the violence that erupted in the city and around the US last spring over George Floyd's death.
Top of The World: Jury selection begins this week in a Minneapolis courtroom for Derek Chauvin's trial for the death of George Floyd — a case that sparked widespread outrage and global protests. And, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been released from prison but her future remains uncertain. Also, a widely discussed and eye-opening interview with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has captured headlines around the world.
The World's host Marco Werman speaks with Siana Bangura, an author, poet and organizer in London, and Miski Noor, an organizer and writer with Black Visions Collective in Minneapolis. They've each been organizing and pushing for changes to policing in their cities for years.
In a dramatic escalation of tensions, North Korea blew up the liaison office used to improve relations with South Korea on Tuesday. And, in a move to stop a flare-up of new coronavirus cases, Beijing has imposed restrictions on public transport and banned high-risk people, such as those in close contact with others who have tested positive for COVID-19, from leaving the city. Also, three Indian soldiers were killed today in a confrontation with Chinese troops in the disputed border region of Kashmir.
Across the Americas, police violence disproportionately targets young black men. The protests sparked by George Floyd's death in Minneapolis have shined a new light on police brutality in South America.
On Saturday, around 100 demonstrators walked through downtown Seoul in protest of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in what was perhaps the first showing of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement in the nation.
A statue of a British slave trader in the UK and confederate statues in the US have been toppled or defaced as protesters demand a reckoning on systemic racism. Some Minneapolis City Council members said they will “begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department." New Zealand has no active cases of COVID-19 in the country. Brasilia has become a new hotspot for the virus.
Some governments have urged would-be protesters to move their activism out of the streets over fears of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Researchers retracted a study in the Lancet medical journal over risks of hydroxychloroquine. US President Donald Trump tweeted a letter calling demonstrators in Washington, DC, "terrorists."
Australian authorities moved on Friday stop protests inspired by the death of black American man George Floyd, saying large gatherings risk new coronavirus infections and banning the biggest rally planned for Sydney.
After long refusing to explicitly criticize a sitting president, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis accused President Donald Trump on Wednesday of trying to divide America and roundly denounced a militarization of the US response to civil unrest.