Monday June 15 marks three weeks since black American George Floyd died at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
The 46-year-old’s last breaths have been witnessed by an immeasurable amount of people as video footage of the traumatic incident circulated rapidly across the world.
Black Lives Matter demonstrations ignited at the scene of the unjust death and have multiplied through US states, to Europe and the UK, and in Manchester - which saw a 15,000-strong march through the city centre last Saturday despite the country being in lockdown.
While the BLM movement has been established for seven years, and hundreds of other deaths in police custody have come before George Floyd, it’s now more apparent than ever that wrongs are being recognised and challenged.
“Everybody is going to remember him around the world. He is going to change the world,” Rodney Floyd told thousands of mourners at his brother’s funeral service in their hometown of Houston, Texas, last week.
With racism dominating conversation and protests making headlines, it took just a matter of days before changes were made to police policies in the US in response.
But that's not all as huge companies have made pledges to tackle social injustice; tensions have risen over historical statues; and inquires opened.
What's happened in the US?
One week after the incident, the state of Minnesota launched a civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department.
On June 2, New Jersey’s Attorney General said the state will update its use of force guidelines for the first time in two decades.
Minneapolis City Council on June 5 agreed to ban the use of chokeholds by police and required officers to report and intervene when they see unauthorised use of force by another officer.
The council has pledged to disband the local police department and replace it with a new system of public safety that 'actually keeps them safe'.
“Nobody is saying we want to abolish health or safety,” Council Member Alondra Cano told local radio station WCCO-AM last Monday.
“What we are saying is we have a broken system that is not producing the outcomes we want.”
Nearly two weeks after Floyd’s death, Derek Chauvin - a white officer who knelt on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds - had his charge elevated to second-degree murder. The other three sacked officers - Thomas Lane, J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao - were then also charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
On June 9, US Democrats in Congress proposed legislation to reform American police, which would address institutional racism and facilitate the prosecution of police for misconduct.
Further calls for defunding the police have returned - which advocates taking money from police and prisons and reinvesting their brimming budgets into services such as housing, employment, education.
The Los Angeles Mayor has said he would cut as much as $150m from the police just two days after he pushed forward a city budget that was increasing it by seven percent. And a New York councilman has called for a $1bn divestment from the NYPD.
In a case widely talked about prior to Floyd's death, a judge has recently ruled the three defendants charged over Ahmaud Arbery's death can advance to trial after finding there is enough evidence.
And the detective who applied for the warrant to enter Breonna Taylor’s apartment in an attempted drug raid has been placed on administrative reassignment after protests have called for justice over her death.
The 26-year-old emergency medical technician (EMT) was shot by police at least eight times.
On Thursday, a city council in the US state of Kentucky voted to ban no-knock warrants, passing a law named in her honour.
Bosses at big brands have also spoken out with Nike’s chief executive, John Danahoe, announcing he is committing $40m (£31.5m) over four years to invest in and support "organisations focused on social justice, education and addressing racial inequality in America".
"While we strive to help shape a better society, our most important priority is to get our own house in order," he wrote in a memo to staff.
"Simply put, we must continue to foster and grow a culture where diversity, inclusion and belonging is valued and is real. Nike needs to be better than society as a whole. Our aspiration is to be a leader. While we have made some progress over the past couple of years, we have a long way to go."
In the space of a week, Reddit has appointed Michael Seibel as the company’s newest board member after co-founder Alexis Ohanian announced that he would step down to make room for a black director to join the social media company’s all-white decision-making team.
Furthermore, a street in front of the White House has been officially renamed "Black Lives Matter Plaza" by Washington DC's Mayor.
What's happened in the UK?
Tens of thousands of residents in UK cities have took part in demonstrations in a stand against racism, with more to come.
Although the case hasn’t been reopened, the Crown Prosecution Service has been asked to review evidence into the death of the railway worker Belly Mujinga who died after testing positive with coronavirus on April 5.
She fell ill with the virus days after it was alleged a man who said he had Covid-19 spat and coughed at her at London’s Victoria station.
In politics, pressure has mounted on ministers to suspend the export of British riot gear, tear gas, and rubber bullets to the US in light of a violent police crackdown to disperse protests.
More than 160 MPs from every major party have written to Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, calling for an immediate end to sales while an investigation takes place.
Meanwhile, more than 600,000 people have signed a petition on the issue.
On Friday June 12, the official human rights watchdog announced it is launching legal action to review the Home Office’s “hostile environment” policy which led to the Windrush scandal.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission said it was using its statutory powers to carry out an assessment of whether the Home Office complied with its public sector equality duty in drawing up the policy.
In TV, Hollyoaks bosses have admitted there is “further work to do” after one of the soap’s stars said she had experienced racism while working on the show.
The Channel 4 series is introducing new measures – including bringing in “unconscious bias trainers” – to tackle racial inequality among its cast and crew.
Lime Pictures, which produces the soap, released a statement after actress Rachel Adedeji said last week that “very little is being done behind the scenes” to address issues around racial inequality.
In addition, Little Britain has been removed from streaming services over its use of blackface characters.
Netflix, Britbox and iPlayer no longer offer the comedy series, starring David Walliams and Matt Lucas, in their catalogue after criticism over the characters, which sees white men portray black people.
The BBC said "times have changed".
And the famous 'don't mention the war' episode from sitcom Fawlty Towers has been removed from UKTV because it contains 'racial slurs'.
Ant and Dec have apologised for a segment of Saturday Night Takeaway in which they impersonated people of colour using blackface.
The pair darkened their skin and wore prosthetics for the undercover sketch, in which they pranked famous faces while in disguise.
And comedian Leigh Francis has issued a tearful apology for portraying black celebrities on sketch show Bo’ Selecta.
The comic played stars including king of pop Michael Jackson, singer Craig David and talkshow host Trisha Goddard on the show, which first aired in 2002.
On June 7, demonstrators in Bristol tore down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston, which has prompted calls for monuments of historical figures associated with slavery in other UK cities to be removed.
The following day, a statue of Robert Milligan was removed from outside the Museum of London Docklands.
On Thursday, the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust announced that the figures depicting Robert Clayton and Thomas Guy will be taken out of public view.
The former London Mayor had ties to the Royal African Company, which transported slaves to the Americas, while Guy invested in the South Sea Company, which was also involved in the trade.
Closer to home in Greater Manchester, a petition has launched to remove the memorial in Piccadilly Gardens to founder of the modern police, Sir Robert Peel.
But there's been much confusion as it was actually his father of the same name who opposed the abolition of slavery as it threatened the family's cotton trade fortune.
Mayor Andy Burnham has also said he will "look into the case" of a drowned 12-year-old refugee.
Shukri Yahye-Abdi died after last being seen in the River Irwell in Bury in June last year.
At an inquest into her death earlier this year, Shukri's mother said her daughter - who was born in a Kenyan refugee camp to Somalian parents before moving to the UK in January 2017 - couldn’t swim and was ‘scared’ of water.
Furthermore, Greater Manchester Combined Authority announced they were committed to creating a Race Equality Panel next month and will publish a quarterly report on police powers.
This article will continue to be updated.
