UK

Minneapolis (AFP) – The family of George Floyd will on May 25 mark five years since he was killed by a US police officer, in a political climate soured by President Donald Trump’s backtracking of reforms designed to tackle racism. Outrage over Floyd’s killing by police catapulted Black Lives Matter into one of the largest protest movements in US history. But five years on, the protesters are gone, and an iconic monument outside the White House has been erased, leaving many to wonder if the movement blew its chance for historic change by failing to win over the American public.

Paris (AFP) – American superstar Kim Kardashian is “satisfied” with the verdict handed down against a gang of robbers who stole $10 million in jewellery from her in a Paris hotel in 2016, says Kardashian’s lawyer. A French court convicted the gang, although they will not return to jail, and the verdicts were more lenient than requested by the prosecution.

Freetown (AFP) – Chained in a traditional healing hut or getting treatment at Sierra Leone’s first government-run rehab centre, addicts of the synthetic cannabis-based opioid kush seek to escape its hold. For those in recovery like Mariama Turay, it’s a chance at a normal life. “I have my daughter back,” says her father Ibrahim, after his daughter returned home from seven weeks of therapeutic treatment.

Paramaribo (Suriname) (AFP) – Images of electoral banners ahead of general election in Suriname. Suriname votes in parliamentary elections on May 25, to decide who will oversee output from recently discovered offshore crude deposits, which have the potential to transform South America’s smallest nation. The country of 600,000 recently discovered a vast oil field off the Atlantic coast that within years should be capable of producing 220,000 barrels daily. IMAGES

Moscow (AFP) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov casts doubt on the Vatican as a potential place for peace talks with Ukraine, after the United States, Italy and the pope expressed hope the city-state could host negotiations.

Kampar (Indonesia) (AFP) – A baby orangutan born earlier this month clings tightly to his mother at a conservation centre on Indonesia’s Sumatra island. Ade was born to 15-year-old mother Susi, who has been at the facility since she was about three years old. Orangutans, native to Borneo and Sumatra, are classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

Cobh (Ireland) (AFP) – More than four years into his recording project, Irishman Sean Ronayne says he has sampled 201 different Irish bird species, stocking over 12,000 audio clips from around the country. Just two remain to be documented: the great skua, and red-breasted merganser. Last year he published an award-winning book, released two albums, and made an acclaimed documentary film. His talk tour is currently selling out venues around Ireland. According to conservation bodies, some 63 percent of Ireland’s birds are currently either red or amber-listed, meaning they are at severe or moderate extinction risk.

Beijing (AFP) – Beijing slams the “politicisation” of educational exchanges after the United States revoked the right of Harvard University to enrol foreign students, many of whom come from China. “The Chinese side has consistently opposed the politicisation of educational cooperation,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning says at a regular press briefing.

Villa del Rosario (Colombia) (AFP) – People are stranded on the Colombian side of the Simon Bolivar International Bridge as Venezuela closes its border with neighboring Colombia from May 23 to May 26, ahead of legislative and regional elections scheduled for this weekend. IMAGES

Paris (AFP) – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed arrives at the Elysee Palace where he is welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron. IMAGES

London (AFP) – UK Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood tells MPs that 20 prisons will be involved in a “national roll-out” of the use of “so-called medication to manage problematic sexual arousal” — also known as chemical castration — in sex offenders.

Lyman (Ukraine) (AFP) – For around three years, 86-year-old Lidia Isayeva has been living alone in a cellar to shelter from Russian strikes that have destroyed her apartment and part of her hometown. Despite the risks, some Ukrainians choose to stay at home in the ruins, holding on to a lifetime of memories in towns where many have lived forever. “It’s an optimism that can lead to death,” says Roman Bugayov, from East SOS, which helps people evacuate from the front.