Amsterdam mayor faces criticism over protest

Thousands have taken to the streets of Amsterdam in protest against the death of George Floyd.

The mayor of Amsterdam has faced criticism for allowing a large protest in the city centre at a time when social distancing measures are supposed to be in place due to the coronavirus pandemic. Mayor Femke Halsema defended the right to protest and told Dutch public television broadcaster NPO there had been "absolutely no indication it would be this big".

But Menno de Jong, a virologist at Amsterdam's UMC hospital and a member of the Dutch national coronavirus crisis team, told the Parool newspaper: "This is exactly what we don't want". "You don't need to be a virologist to reach this conclusion. There is a reason we have been talking about social distancing for months. This could potentially be a so-called super spreading event." Protesters also defied orders against large public gatherings in Sydney's Hyde Park.

"This is everybody's problem," Kira Dargin, an aboriginal Wiradjuri woman at the protest told Reuters news agency. "As a black woman, I'm tired of seeing my brothers go down. As a black mother I fear for my child. Got to stop."