this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm aaron safir. our top stories: council members in minneapolis pledge to dismantle the city's police force following the death in custody there of george floyd. thousands of people continue to take part in peaceful protests against police brutality and racism in the us. huge crowds gather in cities and towns across the country. thousands of people across britain take part in more anti—racism protests. in bristol a statue of a 17th century slave trader is torn down and rolled into the river. and in brazil — hundreds of people have demonstrated there against president bolsonaro‘s

response to the coronavirus. we start with news that minneapolis city council has voted to dismantle its police department. minneapolis is the city where two weeks ago the unarmed black man george floyd died after a police officer officers knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes — triggering protest against racism and police brutality that have gone global. significant reform — or even the defunding of the minneapolis police has emerged as a key demand of protesters in recent days. over the weekend, the mayor of the city jacob frey was forced away from a rally after he would not commit to abolishing the police. now, nine of minneapolis council's 13 members said they would create a new system

of public safety, telling demonstrators the police department could not be fundamentally changed. miguel otarola is the minneapolis reporter for startribune and was at powderhorn park in minneapolis where the pledge was taken. speaking to me earlier he said the actual process of setting up a community led body might take several months. i want to be very clear that there has been no vote made yet, this isjust a verbal pledge, a statement made in front of more than 1000 people to say that they are committed to end the minneapolis police department. it's definitely a sign of action based on the last couple of weeks of reaction that we've seen following the death of george floyd. what could this mean for the police force in the city? what kind of future can people start imagining now? we arejust beginning

that conversation. in fact, inside the council itself, it's unclear what they mean by what it means. what it means to have the reform that so many people are doing right now. —— are asking for right now. already the minneapolis police department is under investigation over the past ten years. that is probably the most imminent thing they are facing and just on friday, the city council had voted to go ahead and ban the use of chokeholds and neck restraints, have police intervene with other officers who are using too much force, so already you are beginning to see some wheels in motion but this is likely going to be a process that takes months, if not more than a year. you hinted at previous cases of police brutality against african—americans in minneapolis. why is it that previous attempts to reform the police department have failed? that's a great question.

and honestly, when i go out into the protests, it's one of the main things i ask people that are out demonstrating. why do you think this feels so much different? there are many factors to put in play, whether it's the pandemic, people being cooped up for so long, wanting to show their actual feelings, maybe there is unemployment that goes into that, but honestly, when i speak to african—american protesters, they say they feel why people also walk up to them and obviously this is something that is much bigger than minneapolis now. it's gone across the entire world, even london. miguel, i wonder what we're going to see, what you expect to see in your city over the next few days. now that this big announcement has been made, big concession

has been made, other protests going to fizzle out, will they start focusing on another of their demands? what is your sense of what could happen? exactly. to be honest, i do not think this is going to be enough for the demonstrations to end. doi do i believe the city council will start to take a little bit more time and put in more community input when it comes to their future decisions? sure, i don't think there is going to be so many big decisions made in the coming days, but the demonstrations are sure not to end. the feelings against the police department and george floyd's death and the arrests and the charges, and the case, continue. here, demonstrators in bristol in the west of england, pulled down a bronze statue of a 17th century slave trader, edward colston, and threw it into the harbour. there were also a few skirmishes in london after an otherwise peaceful protest. the prime minister borisjohnson says that the anti—racism protests across britain have been — in his words —

subverted by thuggery. jon kay reports from bristol. chanting: take it down! 300 years after his death, edward colston‘s fall from grace. for centuries, he took pride of place in bristol, celebrated as a merchant, politician and philanthropist. now, reviled for his part in the slave trade. that statue represents years of oppression, it represents years of hurt and just a lot of emotion and hatred that has been built up inside of us, that we have internalised for years, and that coming down today hopefully signifies change, hopefully we have sent a message, notjust to everyone in the uk or the usa, worldwide. cast in bronze, now daubed with graffiti, one of bristol's most famous sons.

some protesters knelt on his neck, a reference to the death of george floyd across the atlantic. this had begun as a black lives matter demonstration, but it ended in the historic docks, where colston‘s ships once sailed. cheering and yelling gone! jasmine is a trainee teacher. what do you say to somebody who lives in bristol who is horrified by the fact this is gone? people might say it's vandalism, but black people have to walk these streets, black slaves built bristol. we have to walk the streets and see that statue of colston every day. that is what it means. that statue is a kick in the face to all black people. there has been a growing campaign in recent years to remove colston‘s name from buildings across the city, but many feel destroying the statue was the wrong way to do it. tonight, there was a small counter protest, claiming local history had been trashed.

sheer vandalism and disorder, is completely unacceptable, and it is right, actually, that the police follow up on that and make sure that justice is taken and undertaken with those individuals that are responsible for such disorderly and lawless behaviour. avon and somerset police say they deliberately took a low—key approach to the whole protest, due to sensitivities, safety and social distancing. some people will look at this and think, "hang on a minute, you should have intervened and stepped in and at least challenged the behaviour that was happening." this was a very difficult policing operation. there is a lot of context that sits around it and i believe we did the right thing. no regrets? no regrets. well, this evening, people are coming down here and laying placards and many are just standing, looking in disbelief

at what has happened here, that in one afternoon, this city has challenged its history and changed its landscape. jon kay, bbc news, bristol. the tearing down of the statue of bristol slave trader edward colston followed a fresh wave of demands in america, for the removal of statues representing figures who fought for the confederates during the civil war there. on saturday, crowds in richmond tore down a statue of confederate general williams carter wickham which stood outside virginia commonwealth university. that followed the decision by virginia's governor to order the removal of a statue of the leading confederate solder robert e lee from the state's capital. earlier i spoke ashleigh lawrence—sanders — an assistant professor at dayton university specialising in public memory and african american history. i asked her why the death of george floyd has led

to a resurgence of these damnds. well, we saw in the first wave of statue removals, it all began pretty much recently, i say all began, but the recent wave began in 2015 after the murders in charleston, south carolina. dylann roof, the murderer, was associated with white supremacist causes and used the confederate flag in many of his pictures, that sped up the removal of the confederate flag from the south carolina state house but also a questioning of the space of the legacy of the confederacy in public spaces throughout the south, so we saw eventually new orleans removed several of their monuments, baltimore removed some of their monuments. defence of the monuments coalesced in charlottesville, the unite the right rally

where heather heyer was killed, because white nationalists gatherred to defend that monument. defending those, the conversation set back off a bit but as i said, that in addition to the massacre that happened in 2015, it was sort of a joining together of a lot of grassroots movements that had been put together on the ground by black lives matter in the previous year, 2014, 2015. local youth—led protests, black—led protests joined with long—standing anti—monument sentiment to help begin this conversation again on why these monuments are up in the first place and that's what we are seeing here right now, the linking of racial violence against african—america ns with a long—standing legacy of racial violence that statues represent. in bristol, we saw that statue being torn down by a mob. they were a happy mob, they were quite pleased with what they were doing and they had many supporters but they also had

many detractors. also people who may well agree with the statue being taken down but not happy with being taken down in a lawless way. where do you stand on that? i think we need to be clear here there have been processes before to try to take down this statue before, the legal bureaucratic incrementalist processes of trying to petition, trying to ask your local leaders, but we are seeing these processes have not panned out. many cities after 2015 in the united states created monument commissions to look at the monuments and statues in their cities and i would say for a good chunk of them, the decision—making process was not in the hands of people in the community, particularly not from those communities that were harmed by these people and the second thing is that these commissions did very little. in the case of charleston, where the massacre happened in 2015, where this sort of wave began, no confederate statue has come down. they had a commission.

one of the outputs of the commission was a similar controversy as bristol, they wanted a plaque to contextualise the statue. but they couldn't even agree on the language of the plaque, the language of the plaque was controversial, they couldn't vote on it, they watered it down and there was a good chunk of black council members who are like, no, we should take the statue down. so these incrementalist processes have not served the people who have been particularly harmed. what i heard in that new segment just now, what the young lady was saying, if you are a black person in bristol or if you are a black person or charleston or richmond or these places, you have to walk by the statues every day and on top of that, in the united states at least, your taxpayer money, your public money that is supposed to be for everyone, is going to maintain these statues, millions of dollars

has gone to maintain the statues and these monuments in the states over the years. new zealand has announced it has no active cases of covid—19. we're also hearing the prime ministerjacinda ardern who isjust the prime ministerjacinda ardern who is just confirming the country is lifting a lot of restrictions and moving to level one. it will have one of the most open economies in the world. let's have a listen. there is a reason our borders remain. 0urfirst line of defence is we are not to import the right —— virus. borders remain in ourcomparable countries as well. it will continue and will be as important as ever as we know this is a potential pathway. that is key because we want to just not moved to level one, we wa nt to just not moved to level one, we want to stay there. so there is a key asked that i have of all of you today and of businesses. we are asking that businesses and services where the public

visit and enter, to provide the public to maintain their own diaries of where they have been. so are all of government tea m been. so are all of government team will continue working with groups, businesses, hospitality firms, churches, schools, others, to encourage them to display qr codes via posters at the entrance of premises. most of you will have seen at businesses you are out and about ad over the weekend. so that everyone can maintain their diaries through the new zealand covid trace out. manual signing is no longer required but we do ask that you put up a qr poster at the door of your business if you are a premises so business if you are a premises so people can just scan it and keep a record for themselves. 0ngoing improvements will be made to ensure these qr posters are as assessable for as possible for businesses. —— accessible. we have also worked with the events sector or a volunteer qr code to ensure that at these bigger events, where we think the virus can spread more where we think the virus can spread more over

where we think the virus can spread more over large groups. the reason for that is a simple, if we get one or two cases in the future which will remain possible for some time to come due to the global situation and nature of the virus, we need to shut down these cases fast. the last thing, asi these cases fast. the last thing, as i say, we want to do, is move the cup the alert level system again. so, this is a key new behaviour we are asking all new zealanders to adopt at level one. you can do and go wherever you like, wejust asked you keep a record of where you have been by scanning in orjust by noting down your movements for yourself. i have one more thing to ask. at level two, agencies have been managing the return of employees to work with around 50% of people back at their places of work last week. now, at level one, you can, unless you feel unwell, back to your place of work. there has been some fantastic adaptation over the past couple of months with flexible working and this is

progress that has helped people with care arrangement, help people avoid congestion, and those are things we should not lose, but we can balance that with also ensuring that we have a thriving cbd ‘s. for our part, we have asked the state services commission to issue new workplace guidance to make it clear that every workplace sector should return to the usual place of work, taking into account flexible work policies. we have got to level one. now let's make our next goal supporting our recovery right across the economy. i know that having such a firm site on success for so long has sometimes made the road we have taken seem longer and the steps we have taken seem more laboured. at every step, they have been those that have pushed us to do something different, to go faster or further, our collective results, i think, further, our collective results, ithink, speak further, our collective results, i think, speakfor themselves. their caution and ha rd themselves. their caution and hard work got us down the mountain safely when the descent is almost —— always the

most perilous part. moving to level one now is the dividend for everyone's hard work for 110w. for everyone's hard work for now. but we need our team of 5 million for the next phase, and thatis million for the next phase, and that is to get new zealand moving again. as we move from the collective call to action to unite against covid—19, to unite for recovery. i encourage you to buy, play and experience new zealand made to get our country moving again. consider itan country moving again. consider it an extra form of support to visit our country, to buy our local products and to support oui’ local products and to support our local businesses. for my part, this week is about the government's recovery efforts and focus on jobs and you will be seeing that in my agenda. tomorrow, i will be in the bay of plenty, is eating a kiwifruit and avocado pack house to see we have —— how we can further help the sector. horticulture has picked up 13 hundred workers that have lost

theirjobs due to covid —— 13,000. also giving the equivalent of the unemployment benefit to those who might be relied on it. at an electrical business installing solar power and heat pumps. 0n business installing solar power and heat pumps. on wednesday, i will be in kaikoura for a tourism enactment. 0n will be in kaikoura for a tourism enactment. on thursday, iam in tourism enactment. on thursday, i am in auckland making a health and infrastructure announcement and on friday, living a 30 million investment to restart the economy. i will speak at a summit... that is the new zealand prime minister jacinda ardern giving an update on good news for new zealand was not essentially easing what is one of the world's most district lockdowns because the country has no active cases of coronavirus. let's speak to phil mercer who's in sydney. it's a significant easing in new zealand but not a complete return to normal life, is it? no, it's a big step back to what life was like before the

pandemic. wejust what life was like before the pandemic. we just heard from jacinda ardern, the prime minister in wellington, that the country had united to crush the country had united to crush the virus so what level one means is that it will be no restrictions on the number of people allowed at gatherings, for example, but crucially new zealand ‘s international borders will remain closed so from mid night tonight, injust under nine hours time, that level one alert level comes into effect so a big step forward for new zealand. they did back in march introduce some of the toughest block down measures to try to stem the spread of covid—19 anywhere in the world and there have been no active cases in new zealand for 17 days in a row and that's why we've been hearing from the prime minister, jacinda ardern, and her goal now is to re— reignite the economy after being in hibernation for the

best pa rt being in hibernation for the best part of three months. and phil, throughout this process in new zealand, the prime minister, the government are really ta ke n minister, the government are really taken the people with them. there's been no drop—off in support for the government which we've seen and a lot of other countries? i think in the last few days, maybe the last week or so, there has been mounting political and public pressure on the government to announce when level one, the level one alert level will come in because of the fact that there are no active cases in new zealand anymore but the new zealand government has been steadfast in its approach. jacinda ardern said right at the start that her country would go early and hard and introduce those very strict lockdown measures, when they we re lockdown measures, when they were just lockdown measures, when they werejust 100 lockdown measures, when they werejust100 confirmed countries —— cases in the country but in the last few days there has been pressure on the government to win back restrictions to try to allow

new zealand to get back to something approaching normal and as we say, in about nine hours time, that alert level one will come into effect in those strict loch down measures will end for now at least. phil mercer in sydney, thank you for bringing us up—to—date? —— up—to—date. the new suspect in the madeleine mccann case has been described as strange and intimidating by people in the portuguese village where he stayed around the time of the child's disappearance in 2007. 0ne resident claimed people were terrified of the man — identified by the german authorities as christian b — because he carried a gun. 0ur correspondent gavin lee sent this report. this small village is where christian b is said to have stayed in the weeks after the disappearance of madeleine mccann. the suspect is reported to have turned up here, 30 miles from where she went missing, without money, asking for work. christian b is understood to have stayed in this village

for several months, and was often seen at this restaurant and with his campervan that police have appealed for information on, and several people have told us they found him strange and that he was intimidating. they said he spent time with two friends who rented this house and claimed they were fostering german children. this woman, who asked not to be identified, rented the property to the couple. she says locals feared him, and he was seen with a weapon on his belt. everybody was really terrified of him, because my friend's daughter had a health issue, a mental health issue, and my friend was very scared that, you know, he could — he could really do something to her. and being seen with a gun, i suppose, you know, people would be frightened. in germany, police are also investigating the suspect over the disappearance of five—year—old inga in 2015. and the father of another german child, six—year—old rene, who went missing from this algarve beach in 1996, says police have

told him there could be a link. this local fireman was part of the search team. translation: we never had any evidence about where rene had been seen. one person said he was near the river, but wasn't very sure. normally, when people drown in this part of the coast, a body appears after a few hours. in four days since the new madeleine mccann appeal, police have received almost 400 tip—offs from the public, help which is vital, they say, if there is to be a breakthrough in this case. gavin lee, bbc news, portugal. england and manchester city footballer raheem sterling has backed protests taking place across the uk, saying "the only disease right now is the racism that we are fighting". he's been speaking to the bbc‘s newsnight programme. the only disease right now is the racism we are fighting. i

think right now, this is the most important thing is, at this moment in time, because this moment in time, because this is something that's been happening for years and years and just like the pandemic, we wa nt to and just like the pandemic, we want to find some solutions to stop it. the samsung group heir lee jae—yong has appeared in court for a hearing to determine whether he should be jailed over allegations of accounting fraud. south korean prosecuters sought the warrant last week over suspicions of stock price manipulation and perjury, among other offences. the heir to the world's largest maker of computer chips and smartphones has already spent about a year in jail on a separate charge of bribery. a reminder of our top story before we go. councilmembers in the us city of minneapolis have pledged to dismantle the city's release force, a key demand of protesters following the death in custody there of george floyd. his death of course

sparking protests across the united states and the world. that's it from me and the team. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @aaronsafir. hello there. the first week of summer has certainly brought a big change in the weather pattern. over the weekend, cool northerly winds, some rain, and a good deal of cloud around as well. interestingly, at loftus, in redcar and cleveland, there's been more rain in the last week than we've had during the whole of spring. the start of the new week, though, looks a lot drier. the winds won't be as strong either. that's because we've got this area of high pressure, or at least the nose of it, heading towards the uk. may not last long, but for a while, it will keep those weather fronts at bay from the north—west of the uk. now, many places will have a dry day on monday, the sunshine coming and going. there'll still be a few light

showers blown onto some of those north sea coasts, and during the afternoon, watch out for some heavy, slow—moving showers in wales and the south—west of england. but, on the whole, a lot of dry weather around. temperatures not very different from what we had on sunday, but you will find that the winds are a good deal lighter today. and those light winds continue into the evening. it shouldn't be too long before we see the back of those showers from the south—west, and overnight into tuesday morning, it's going to be dry pretty much everywhere. a fair bit of cloud around, perhaps not quite as chilly across scotland and the north—east of england as it will be first thing on monday morning. well, moving into tuesday, and there's still quite a lot of cloud in the picture. and whilst most places will be dry, there's the odd shower developing through the day ahead of the main change, which is this band of rain here arriving into western scotland and northern ireland, probably very late on in the day on tuesday, if not into the evening. temperatures still on the cool side, though, for many. 15—17 degrees. and then more significant changes arrive from mid—week

onwards. we've got that weather front driving some rain southwards. pressure is dropping, we end up with an area of low pressure a cross the uk on wednesday. so we've got some cloud, we've got some outbreaks of rain pushing towards the south—east. and whilst it may well brighten up a bit further north, look at all the showers developing, and those actually could be heavy and thundery. and because there's more cloud, because there's more rain around, temperatures will be a bit lower, 14—16 degrees. that area of low pressure is still going to be around during thursday and perhaps into friday. it's drifting further south, as well. so the wetter weather as we head towards the latter part of the week more likely to be across england and wales. we'll see the winds picking up, but by the end of the week, it could be a warmer wind.

this is bbc news, the headlines: a majority of the minneapolis city council has promised to dismantle its police department. the move follows the death of an unarmed black man, george floyd, in minneapolis police custody, nearly two weeks ago. council members said they would create a new system of public safety. in the us, large numbers of people are continuing to take part in peaceful protests against police brutality and racism. tens of thousands gathered in cities including washington and new york, as well as small towns across the country. new zealand has announced that it has no active cases of covid—19 for the first time since the end of february. the health ministry says the last person who was being monitored for coronavirus has now been released from isolation as he's been symptom—free and is regarded as having recovered.

now on bbc news it's time for hardtalk.