Responding to criticism from China over the police unlawful killing George Floyd, US Secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo has lashed out describing the Chinese Communist Party’s criticism as “obscene” and “laughable propaganda”.

Pompeo’s statement stressed that the contrast between the US and China “could not be more stark” and goes on to list a litany of human rights abuses conducted in China.

This includes attacks on churches, imprisons journalist and forcing Uighurs into “re-education camps”.

(Photo Credit: Lorie Shaull)

A group of UN rights experts have condemned America’s systemic racism and racial bias following what they term as the “lynching” of George Floyd and the outbreak of protests throughout America and across the world.

UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has vowed to enable 3 million Hong Kong residents to settle in the UK as the Chinese government introduce a draconian national security act which threatens pro-independence activists.

The announcement of this plan has been met with approval from both human rights organisations as well as senior Conservative party officials. There are discrepancies however in the government’s messaging with Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, proposing to limit the plans to British oversea passport holders. This would limit the plan to 350,000.

UK Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Emily Thornberry, has called for a suspension of sales of riot control equipment to the US following police crackdowns on Black Lives Matters protesters.

In a letter addressed to the Secretary of State for International Trade, Liz Truss, Thornberry stressed:

“We cannot be a party to the violence of the American President against his own people”.

Around 20,000 people joined protests in France yesterday over the death of a black man in police custody in 2016, that has been likened to the killing of George Floyd in the USA.

Despite police orders not to demonstrate due to coronavirus restrictions, protestors assembled to demand justice for Adama Traore, 24, who died in a police station.

US President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the military to in response to ongoing protests across the country, which he has termed “acts of domestic terror”.

Trump warned that if cities or states failed to "defend their residents" he would deploy the army and "quickly solve the problem for them,” adding that police and law enforcement would “dominate the streets”.

Following the murder of George Floyd, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, headed calls from several politicians and organisations condemning the killing of a black man by police officials.

“This is the latest in a long line of killings of unarmed African Americans by US police officers and members of the public,” Bachelet said.

With thousands taking to the streets across cities of the USA to protest against police brutality and the murder of George Floyd, state police forces are responding to protestors with violence and “military-style” tactics, during which a 20-year-old women was thrown forcefully to the ground and hospitalised .

In the wake of growing tensions between police and protestors following the murder of George Floyd, bus drivers in Minneapolis and New York have shown their support for arrested protestors, by refusing to drive them to jail.

US President, Donald Trump, has announced that he will cut funding for the World Health Organisation and redirect these funds into other organisations.

This order follows allegations raised by Trump that the WHO did not act appropriately in responding to the coronavirus. In a statement to the media, Trump claimed that China had “total control of the organisation”. The US is reported to also be taking measures to sanction Hong Kong officials responsible for the erosion of the region’s sovereignty.