The Black Lives Matter protests that spread from Minnesota across the planet in the past few weeks have already created tangible change. In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed, city officials have committed to dismantling the police force; statues of confederates and slave owners across the US have been toppled – as has a notorious example in the UK and, around the world, the daily reality of systemic racism has been further exposed – especially to white people. This week, we begin with six black writers offering their thoughts on the impact of the protests before Chris McGreal chronicles a week that rocked the world and Kenya Evelyn looks back at Floyd’s life and the burden of being black in the United States.
Meanwhile, the threat from Covid-19 continues. While New Zealanders woke on Tuesday to a semblance of normality – and no known cases of the virus – other countries, especially in Latin America, are now in the eye of the storm. But even for those nations now at the lowest risk, without a vaccine, the threat of a new wave of infection remains. International correspondent Michael Safi speaks to scientists about what that might look like. Will it be peaks and troughs or another huge spike?
We also report from Brazil, where Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of Covid-19 has been disastrous. It is now the third-deadliest country for victims of the disease. But as Ed Augustin reports from Cuba, there is a proven way to handle an outbreak. Elsewhere, our global environment editor Jonathan Watts looks to some of the greenest cities in the world to see how we might keep quarantine pollution levels in a post-lockdown world, while Laura Spinney reports on the “dark matter” that has seemingly protected some people and places against the worst of this virus.
In our culture section Run the Jewels, aka Killer Mike and El-P, also reflect on the Floyd killing and the subsequent protests as well as their “surreal” new album RTJ4. In opinion, Misha Glenny looks at how organised crime has regrouped as lockdowns have begun to ease and Steven Poole reviews a new book about the radical power of boredom.
