US protests: Minneapolis council votes to dismantle police department
The council of the US city of Minneapolis voted late on Sunday to dismantle and rebuild the police department, after the killing in custody of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests about racism in law enforcement, pushing the issue on to the national political agenda.
Floyd was killed on May 25 when white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on the unarmed black man's neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder and is to appear in court Monday.
"We committed to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild with our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe," council president Lisa Bender told CNN.
Europeans join global wave of antiracism protests
Protesters calling for racial justice rallied across Europe on Sunday, joining a wave of demonstrations sparked by the death of African-American George Floyd while being detained by police.
A video of the incident with Floyd pleading for air in Minneapolis as a white police officer knelt on his neck has sparked angry protests worldwide.
Thousands marched in cities across Britain. In Bristol, a city linked to the slave trade, the statue of trader Edward Colston was torn down Sunday and thrown into the harbour.
Lebanon needs urgent aid and reforms, International Crisis Group says
Lebanon needs urgent international help and long-demanded reforms to protect its people from their country's worst economic crisis, the International Crisis Group said on Monday.
"The economic crisis is without precedent in the country's history," the Brussels think tank said.
Lebanon's economy has been in freefall since last year, sparking mass protests from October against an entrenched political class viewed as inept and corrupt.
The local currency has plunged in value, prices have soared, and tens of thousands have lost their jobs or had their salaries slashed, all compounded from mid-March by a coronavirus lockdown.
Iran 'ready for further prisoner swaps' with US
Iran is ready for further prisoner exchanges with the United States, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Sunday, according to the official Irna news agency.
Michael White, a US Navy veteran detained in Iran since 2018, was freed last Thursday as part of a deal in which the US allowed Iranian-American physician Majid Taheri to visit Iran – a rare instance of US-Iranian co-operation.
"If the possibility of exchanging prisoners exists, we have the readiness to free the rest of the individuals who are imprisoned and return them to the country," Mr Mousavi said.
