France imposes lockdown as nation is inundated by second COVID-19
28 October 2020
French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday a second nationwide lockdown starting Friday to contain the coronavirus.
Why it matters: “(France has been) overpowered by a second wave,” Macron said in a national televised address Wednesday, noting the "new wave will be stronger and deadlier," than the first.The announcement comes after the country saw over 36,000 new cases in the last 24 hours.
Details: Though non-essential businesses, including bars and restaurants, will close, schools and factories will remain open. Macron said the measures come as an attempt to implement a “brutal break” to the spread of COVID-19.
- People will only be allowed to leave home for essential work or medical reasons.
- The lockdown will be eased once new daily infections fall back to about 5,000, the Guardian reports.
The big picture: France has seen over 1.2 million cases and more than 35,000 deaths since the pandemic began, per John Hopkins University.
- The country's first lockdown took place this spring and lasted eight weeks.
Go deeper: France becomes 2nd Western European country to top 1M coronavirus cases
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.