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This is VOA news. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd.
Atlanta's police chief has resigned hours after a black man was fatally shot by officers in a struggle following a field sobriety test. As AP's Julie Walker reports, authorities said the dead man had grabbed an officer's Taser but was running away when he was shot. The GBI says it started when Atlanta police were called to a Wendy's where 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks was asleep in his car in the drive-thru. Customers had complained because they had to drive around him. When Brooks failed a sobriety test, police tried to arrest him but say he resisted. The GBI says officers then tried to tase him but he grabbed the Taser. That's when the Georgia Bureau of Investigation says police shot him. Videos posted to social media the night of the shooting show a small crowd gathered at the scene protesting the police shooting. I'm Julie Walker. Anti-racism protests took place around the world on Saturday, prompted by the killing of George Floyd, an African-American who died in police custody last moth in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In Britain, nationalist demonstrators clashed with police as thousands of people took to the streets. Supporters of Black Lives Matter demonstrated as did groups branding themselves counter-demonstrators, some of whom were affiliated with right-wing and extreme right-wing organizations. Several thousand people denounced police violence in an anti-racism protest in central Paris Saturday. Protesters chanted "No justice, no peace" and some climbed the statue of Marianne, who personifies the French Republic, in the Place de la République. The outrage generated by Floyd's death in Minneapolis last month has resonated in France, in particular in the city's deprived suburbs. This is VOA news. President Donald Trump told West Point's graduating class on Saturday that their job will be to defend America's vital interests and not to fight endless wars in faraway lands. In his commencement address to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Trump told more than 1,000 graduating cadets that the job of the American soldier is not to rebuild foreign nations but to defend and defend strongly the United States. "It is not the duty of U.S. troops to solve ancient conflicts in faraway lands that many people have never even heard of. We are not the policemen of the world." The president came to West Point at a time of tension with U.S. military leaders over whether the military should be used to quell nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd, an African-American man who died in police custody last month. A group of African countries has sent a letter to the president of the U.N. Human Rights Council calling for debate on racially inspired human rights violence when the council meets next week. As Lisa Schlein reports from Geneva, the request was sparked by the death of African-American George Floyd while in police custody. In its letter, the African group says the events that have unfolded since the May 25 death of George Floyd have sparked protests globally against the injustice and brutality that people of African descent face daily in many parts of the world. It says the current racially inspired human rights violations, systemic racism, police brutality and violence against peaceful protest makes a debate airing these festering issues a matter of great urgency. It adds the protests the world is witnessing are a rejection of the racial inequality and discrimination suffered by black people and other people of color in the United States. Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva. Chinese authorities have locked down 11 residential communities near a wholesale food market in Beijing to try to stem a new outbreak of COVID-19. AP's Zaria Shaklee reports. City officials say that 45 workers at the Xinfadi market tested positive for the coronavirus, though they showed no symptoms. That was in addition to an earlier announcement of seven people with symptoms who had visited or worked at the market. The market has 4,000 tenants. City officials said 40 environmental samples taken at the market also tested positive. Until two days ago, Beijing had not had a locally transmitted case of coronavirus for more seven weeks. Authorities have now reversed some recent moves to relax coronavirus restrictions. I'm Zaria Shaklee. For more, visit voanews.com. I'm David Byrd. |