Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

On a normal night, the White House is a beacon in Washington, DC, as the executive mansion’s bright exterior is bathed in spotlights from dusk until dawn.

An hour before midnight on Sunday evening, however, the building went dark.

It was an unusual move made for security purposes as protesters, flouting a city-ordered curfew, clashed with police and Secret Service agents around the building.

The symbolism – of a president, and a presidency, under siege - was difficult to miss.It’s hardly the image Donald Trump wants to present at this moment.

The challenge for the president is his that message has been far from clear.

In an early Friday morning tweet, he appeared to suggest looters would be shot.

That afternoon, he told reporters that he understood the hurt and pain of the American people.

The following day, he tweeted a warning that any protestors who set foot on White House grounds would face “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons”.

Then, in a quickly added introduction to a speech after the manned US rocket launch in Florida on Saturday afternoon, he pledged to be a “friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace”.

According to a New York Times report, some of the president’s advisors are urging him to give a televised address to calm the nation. Others fear such a move could be a repeat of his error-strewn speech about the coronavirus in early March – and without a firm plan for how to move forward, the effort would be seen as hollow.

For now, the president appears intent hanging the blame for the violence on left-wing radicals and, by connection, Democratic politicians, including his presumptive November general election opponent, Joe Biden.

They, in turn, accuse him of dereliction of duty and rhetoric that has sown the seeds of unrest.

The president has lashed out at governors, calling for more aggressive police action; his Democratic opponents respond that this is a recipe for more violence.

Like a whirlwind of fire, the pace of the conflict – both on the ground in US cities and in the political debate – is spinning faster and hotter by the day.

Image source, Getty Images

A new poll conducted by Yahoo News and YouGov, external reports 61% of American adults think race was a "major factor" in George Floyd's death, compared with 9% who disagreed.

But views on the protests differ, with 51% of Americans saying the protests in Minneapolis are "mostly violent riots" and 10% describing them as "mostly peaceful", while a quarter say they are a mix.

As for protesters' motives, 43% thought the demonstrations stemmed from a "genuine desire to hold police officers accountable" but 40% attributed it to a "long-standing bias" against police.

Race relations, particularly in a law enforcement context, is a complicated part of American culture.

A 2019 report by Gallup, external found that a slim majority of all Americans thought black-white relations were good, but only 40% of black Americans agreed. The majority of black Americans rated the relationship with white Americans as bad.

A Pew Research Center survey in 2017, external saw similar differences among members of the police: 92% of white officers said the nation has already made changes to ensure equal rights for black Americans.

Only 29% of black officers agreed.

Image source, Getty Images

Some curfews for Monday night are already being announced.

• Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser has announced a 7pm curfew for the next two nights. Sunday's curfew of 11pm has been brought forward after protesters lit fire to buildings in the city, including a historic church known as the church of the presidents
• A curfew has also been announced in Raleigh, North Carolina, starting at 8pm. “There are so many people hurting throughout this city, and we need to come together peacefully and as one community,” Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said.
• Santa Monica and Beverly Hills will both impose curfews on Monday. The curfews will start at 1pm for business districts and 4pm citywide
• Union City in California will impose a curfew on Monday after vandalism and looting affected multiple businesses, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Details of the curfew are expected later today
• Betsy Price, mayor of Fort Worth in Texas, has implemented an 8pm curfew

President Trump denounced governors across the US as 'weak' and urged them to authorise heavier-handed tactics to quell protests that have raged across the country for six nights.

In a conference call on Monday morning, the president told governors: "You have to dominate, if you don't dominate you're wasting your time. They're going to run over you, you're going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate."

"You’ve got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again," he said, according to audio obtained by CBS News.

Trump called the unrest, the largest wave of national protests since the 1960s, "a war in a certain sense", according to the New York Times.

Leaders in cities that have seen protests have decried Trump's previous comments, threatening draconian action, unhelpful.

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee to face off against Donald Trump in November, has been meeting with black leaders at a church in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

One elderly woman told Biden that many politicians claim to be "the voice of the voiceless'"- only to keep those who really are voiceless unheard.

"That is the problem," she continued, adding that protesters "want to be part of the conversation."

"So we gotta find a way, we have to find a way… to let them talk."

When it was Biden's turn to speak, he promised to enact plans for a swift economic recovery and to address "institutional racism" if he wins the presidency.

Biden, who was wearing a mask, said he will host a series of "very serious national speeches" about the future of the US in coming days.

He also repeated a vow to choose a female presidential running mate and said that several black women are being considered.

Later today, Biden will be holding a conference call with the mayors of several cities that have been rocked by protests in the past week.

Jessica Lussenhop
Senior staff writer, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Tensions between Minneapolis' black community and the police did not start with the death of George Floyd. They have been years in the making.

On a hot Thursday morning in the Longfellow neighbourhood of Minneapolis, a 28-year-old father named Nuwman stood outside the Minneapolis Police Department's Third Precinct drinking a large coffee as smoke wafted past from the smouldering ruins of nearby buildings.

"This is not just a singular moment," said Nuwman. "This is a cataclysm. A combination of all the things that happened before.

This is not the first instance of a controversial, police-involved killing in the region. In 2016, Philando Castile was shot and killed by a police officer in a neighbourhood just 15 minutes away from the current epicentre of protest.

In 2017, a Minneapolis officer was charged with the shooting death of Justine Damond after she called to report a possible sexual assault. In 2015, protests erupted over the shooting death of Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old man who was being pursued by Minneapolis officers.

Read the full story here.

Former US President Barack Obama has penned a response to the protests, an article entitled: 'How to make this moment the turning point for real change'.

Obama says violence shouldn't be rationalised, excused or supported through participation.

"If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves."

He writes the point of protest is "to make the powers that be uncomfortable", raise awareness and highlight injustice, but eventually, these aspirations have to translate into laws, which "only happens when we elect government officials who are responsive to our demands".

"So the bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics," he says. "We have to do both."

Obama's tenure in the White House saw a number of high-profile cases of police brutality against black Americans, including the deaths of Eric Garner and Philando Castile, as well as massive protests in Ferguson, Missouri after the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

For more, check out our correspondent Nick Bryant's previous analysis of Obama's presidency here: Did Obama improve US race relations?

Leading names from the world of sport have been speaking out over the death of George Floyd.

Liverpool players took a knee around the centre circle at Anfield in a message of support. "Unity is strength," senior player James Milner wrote on Twitter with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter

Image source, LFC

England footballer Jadon Sancho took off his shirt to reveal a "Justice For George Floyd" top after scoring for Borussia Dortmund over the weekend. He was booked - received a warning - for removing his Dortmund shirt.

Image source, EPA

Basketball legend Michael Jordan says he is "deeply saddened, truly pained and plain angry".

"I see and feel everyone's pain, outrage and frustration," he added.

"We have had enough."

Teenage tennis star Coco Gauff took to TikTok to ask: "Am I next?"

At a news conference on Monday, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed the arrest of his daughter at a protest last night.

"She only wants to do good in the world," he said about his daughter Chiara, 25, whose mother is African-American.

"I’m proud of her," he continued, adding that "she was acting peacefully, and believes everything she did was in spirit of peaceful protests".

“I will let her speak for herself in any way she wants,” he finished.

During his conference, the mayor also noted that the majority of protests have been peaceful.

He said that he plans to speak with the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo about the possibility of instituting a curfew this evening, as other cities have done.

Image source, Getty Images

Before George Floyd's death set off waves of shock, anger, and protests across the US, the arch of his life crossed crests and troughs.

There were highs, as when he, as a teenager in Houston, played American football for the 1992 Texas state champion runners-up Yates High School Lions.

There were lows, as when he was arrested for robbery in 2007 and served five years in prison.

But mostly, it would seem that Floyd, who was 46 when he died, was simply trying to live life as any other American, in search of betterment in the face of both personal and societal challenges.

Read more:

George Floyd, the man whose death sparked US unrest

Image source, Reuters

Some Facebook employees have said they are "ashamed" about the tech giant's decision not to remove or flag a controversial post by Donald Trump last week.

The US president took to Facebook to repeat a tweet about the widespread protests in Minneapolis, saying he would "send in the National Guard" and warning that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts".

Twitter had placed a warning over the content, which it said "glorified violence", but Facebook said it did not violate its company policy.

The post remains untouched on Facebook after founder Mark Zuckerberg said it did not violate the company’s policy around incitement of violence.

Read our full story here

Late on Sunday, Zuckerberg said: "We stand with the Black community - and all those working towards justice in honour of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and far too many others whose names will not be forgotten."

As of 1 June, 24 states and the nation's capital have activated their troops in response to the protests, according to the National Guard.

Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington state are among those with deployed Guard members.

There are now close to 62,000 National Guard members serving across the country - though this number includes those pulled to help with Covid-19 efforts and other natural disasters like floods and fires.

Top general Joseph Lengyel has said the number of troops deployed to deal with the civil unrest is around 16,000, US media report.

National Guard troops are a part of the US Army and Air Force reserve and consist of full-time and part-time soldiers and civilians who have voluntarily enlisted for service.

They are typically managed by the state governors, though the president can also take control in certain situations. Guard members primarily serve their home state but can also respond to other missions.

Image source, Getty Images

Fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was shown in video footage kneeling on George Floyd's neck, has been transferred to a maximum security jail as he awaits his first court appearance for third-degree murder and manslaughter.

The Minnesota Correctional Facility at Oak Park Heights is the third jail he has been moved to since his arrest on Friday.

At a press conference on Sunday night, the state's Department of Corrections commissioner said Chauvin was transferred for two reasons - to prevent the spread of Covid-19 at the Hennepin County Jail where he was previously being kept and because of an expected influx of protesters at that jail.

Chauvin's first court appearance was scheduled for today, but has been pushed back to 8 June. Over the weekend, his wife filed for divorce, according to US media.

His bail has been set at $500,000 (£400,000).

As protests sweep across the US, many in the world of arts and entertainment have been speaking out against racism and police brutality.

Beyonce posted a video on Instagram calling for "Justice for George Floyd".

Ariana Grande was also spotted at a protest holding a "Black Lives Matter" sign.

Ashley Banjo from the UK dance group Diversity has spoken out about the death of George Floyd, saying the arrest footage made him feel "sick to my stomach".

The crew from West Side Story on Broadway tweeted: "We must stand together, shout out together, and take action together to make a difference that will be felt for generations."

Image source, Getty Images

These protests were initially sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man in Minneapolis police custody last Monday.

Police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, has since been charged with murder for kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes.

But the demonstrations that began in Minnesota have spread across the US.

• In pictures: Unrest spreads across US
• Why has a US city gone up in flames?

Frustration was already simmering over the recent deaths of two other black Americans, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky - and Floyd's death bore a striking resemblance to that of Eric Garner, who died after being held in a police chokehold in New York in 2014.

Years of anger over socio-economic inequality and racial discrimination nationwide have also added to the outrage.

Now, we're seeing protests in more than 75 cities, even despite Covid-19 fears and in defiance of curfews.

The governor of Kentucky has announced an investigation after a man was killed when protesters and police exchanged gunfire in Louisville.

"Given the seriousness of the situation, I have authorised the Kentucky State Police to independently investigate the event," Andy Beshear said in a statement Monday morning.

The death happened early on Monday morning as police and the National Guard were trying to disperse crowds.

It is unclear if the victim had fired at police.

The coaches of the National Basketball Association (NBA) have spoken out saying: "We cannot treat this as an isolated incident of outrage."

In a statement on Monday, external, the group of head and assistant coaches acknowledged their teams were mostly African-American and said they "see, hear and share their feelings of disgust, frustration, helplessness and anger".

• George Floyd death: Michael Jordan 'truly pained and plain angry'

"Police brutality, racial profiling and the weaponisation of racism are shameful, inhumane and intolerable."

Floyd's murder was traumatising to the nation, they said, "but the reality is that African Americans are targeted and victimised on a daily basis".

The coaches added that they have a responsibility to "speak out for those who don't have a voice" and use their "power and platform to affect change".

Image source, Getty Images

The "hacktivist" group Anonymous appears to have re-emerged in the wake of violent protests over the death of George Floyd, promising to expose the "many crimes" of Minneapolis's police to the world.

The hacker collective was once a regular fixture in the news, targeting those it accused of injustice with cyber-attacks, but has gone quiet in recent years.

BBC technology reporters David Molloy and Joe Tidy examine the group's re-emergence.

Freelance photojournalist Linda Tirado was reporting in Minneapolis when she was struck in her left eye with a projectile appearing to come from the direction of the police.

Now she's permanently blind in that eye.

"If somebody thought they were gonna stop me telling stories and doing my job by putting my eye out, they're gonna have to try harder," she told the BBC.

Tirado is one of at least a dozen journalists who have been injured covering the protests across the US this weekend.

Many seem to have been caught up in police efforts to disperse protesters, but in some clips shared on social media, it appears journalists were attacked even after offering press credentials.

In Washington DC, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool shared a video of a police officer with a riot shield running at cameraman Pete Murtaugh.

In Michigan, Detroit Free Press reporter JC Reindl shared an image, external of an officer approaching him, saying: "Last thing I saw before I got sprayed."

Over the weekend, anti-racism demonstrators in many countries expressed solidarity with the US protests.

• In New Zealand, thousands of people took to the streets, chanting "Black Lives Matter", externalon Monday in the cities of Auckland and Wellington in the wake of George Floyd's death
• In the UK on Sunday, thousands of people gathered across central London, some holding signs saying "Justice for George Floyd". There was also a march in Manchester
• In Canada, large protests were held in Vancouver and Windsor. In Toronto, protesters raised the case of a young black woman, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, who recently fell to her death from a balcony, externalin the presence of police. An investigation is under way
• Also in Canada, a protest in Montreal saw some unrest on Sunday night
• In Germany, hundreds gathered outside the US embassy in Berlin on Sunday.