Down the road from where George Floyd was killed five years ago, a woman listened quietly as the man opposite shared his lingering anger over the death filmed and shared around the world.”When that video was blasted all over the place I was in disbelief… Haven’t we as a country learned?” said the gray-haired Black man, who sat on a foldable red-checkered chair with his outstretched feet crossed. Across from him, 76-year-old Rita Davern occasionally nodded, her hands clasped in her lap during most of the half-hour conversation that the pair allowed AFP to witness.They were taking part in re-evaluation counseling — an informal practice of peer-to-peer discussions aimed at healing trauma — which was deployed at a memorial event in Minneapolis marking the five-year anniversary of Floyd’s murder. Researchers have found his killing by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, took an emotional toll on Black Americans in particular, with a study finding that nearly one million more would have screened positive for depression in the week after his death.”If you’re experiencing fear or grief or anything, if you have somebody you can talk to about it, there’s some kind of healing that happens,” Davern, a white filmmaker, said later.”I think it matters that a white person listens because that’s what usually doesn’t happen,” she added. The man, 54, who asked to be named only as Mr Davis, agreed: “Change happens with discussions among common people, not among the people in positions of power and influence.”- ‘Re-traumatized’ -For some, the emotions on this anniversary have been stirred up by the recent calls from some of President Donald Trump’s right-wing allies for him to pardon Floyd’s killer.Janet Kitui, 57, said she felt “re-traumatized” by that news. “That struck a raw nerve for me,” she told AFP. “That would really erase a human life that was George Floyd, and subsequently any of us who are Black in these United States.”Kitui, a procurement officer living in Minneapolis, said attending the weekend memorial event offered her a sense of comfort. “To be here is to be with fellow people who are honoring George Floyd, and that is healing in itself,” she said.The memorial event focused partly on self-care, with stands offering free massages and art therapy sessions for children. Meanwhile, the informal counseling allowed for people to reflect on the legacy of Floyd’s death. At one point, Davis asked Davern how race issues are perceived in her neighborhood.”I see white people, my people, more scared of going out, you know, more scared of talking to their neighbors,” Davern said. Davis interrupted: “What are they afraid of?””We’re afraid of what we don’t know, we’re afraid of coming here today. It’s just the division of our society,” Davern replied. 

Americans on Sunday mark five years since George Floyd was killed by a US police officer, as President Donald Trump backtracks on reforms designed to tackle racism.Floyd’s deadly arrest on May 25, 2020 helped launch the Black Lives Matter movement into a powerful force that sought to resolve America’s deeply rooted racial issues, from police violence to systemic inequality. But since Trump’s return to power in January –- he was serving his first term when Floyd died -– his administration has axed civil rights investigations and cracked down on diversity hiring initiatives.BLM, meanwhile, finds itself lacking the support it enjoyed when protesters sprawled across US cities during the Covid pandemic — with many now agreeing the movement achieved little of substance.An anniversary event is taking place in what has been named George Floyd Square, the area of Minneapolis where the 46-year-old took his final breath as police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck during an arrest.A small junction in a residential part of the northern US city, the square is covered with protest art including a purple mural that reads “You Changed the World, George.”That optimistic message painted in 2020 is now, however, at odds with a president whose more extreme allies have suggested he pardon Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering Floyd and sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.Some experts believe Trump’s re-election was partly a backlash to BLM activism, which included protests that turned to riots in some cities and calls to defund the police. Floyd’s family members told AFP in Minneapolis on Friday that they wanted people to continue pushing for reform despite the hostile political climate.”We don’t need an executive order to tell us that Black lives matter,” said his aunt Angela Harrelson, who wore a dark T-shirt depicting Floyd’s face.”We cannot let a setback be a holdback for the great comeback. Donald Trump just didn’t get the memo,” she added to nods from other relatives standing beside her.Paris Stevens, a Floyd cousin, agreed: “No one can silence us anymore.”- ‘Keep the memory going’ -The Floyd relatives, with around 50 other people, held a moment of silence on Friday afternoon before placing yellow roses on the roadside spot where Floyd’s fatal arrest was filmed and shared around the world.It was a moment of reflection –- others include a candlelight vigil on Sunday night –- during a weekend otherwise devoted to music, arts and dancing.Memorial events have been held annually since Floyd’s death and the theme for this one -– “The People Have Spoken” -– was suggested by Nelson Mandela’s grandson Nkosi when he visited the square, according to Harrelson.She said the defiant title was meant to reflect five years of protesting, adding that “even though it’s tiresome, we go on.”Visitors are expected to pay their respects through the weekend.Jill Foster, a physician from Minneapolis, told AFP at the square on Friday that she felt honoring Floyd’s legacy was partly a form of political resistance.”Under the Trump administration, everything is trying to be rewritten and a new reality created,” the 66-year-old said. “We have to keep the memory going and keep the information flowing.”Meanwhile, for Courteney Ross, Floyd’s girlfriend when he died, the anniversary weekend brings up powerful feelings of personal loss.”I miss him so much, I miss him by my side,” Ross, 49, told AFP, dressed in black and holding a bunch of yellow roses. “It’s beautiful to see all the people come out and celebrate him,” she added.”You see a unification that you don’t get a lot in this country lately, and people are celebrating a man who, you know, gave his life for us.”

Social media platform X was hit by a two-hour outage Saturday, prompting owner Elon Musk to say he needs to spend more time focusing on his companies.His statement echoed comments earlier this month suggesting he would reduce his role in US President Donald Trump’s administration.The world’s richest person has an extraordinarily full plate as owner/CEO of X, xAI (developer of the AI-powered chatbot Grok), electric-car maker Tesla and rocket builder SpaceX — not to mention his recent polarizing efforts to help Trump slash the size of the US federal government.As backlash to those cuts grew and Tesla share prices slipped, Musk began drawing away from the government role, confirming last week that he was down to one or two days a week at the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency.”Still, the man who contributed more than $235 million to Trump’s election campaign remains a close advisor to the US president, attending an Oval Office meeting with the South African president on Wednesday.After the X outage on Saturday, Musk suggested that he may have been away from his companies for too long.”As evidenced by the X uptime issues this week, major operational improvements need to be made,” he said.”The failover redundancy should have worked, but did not.”X had largely returned to normal service by 11:00 am US Eastern time (1500 GMT) Saturday. The SITE Intelligence Group reported that hacker-activist group DieNet had claimed responsibility for the outage.DieNet, it said, had called the attack a “test” of its so-called Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) capabilities — flooding the system with online traffic to make it inaccessible to legitimate users. AFP was unable to independently verify DieNet’s claim of responsibility, and X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the outage.- ‘Super focused’ -“Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms,” Musk posted on X. “I must be super focused on X/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week), as we have critical technologies rolling out.” SpaceX announced Friday that it plans to attempt a new launch of its mega-rocket Starship next week. Still under development, Starship exploded in flight during two previous launches.Starship is key to Musk’s long-term plans to colonize Mars, and SpaceX has been betting on the launch of numerous Starship prototypes — despite the explosive failures — to quickly identify and address problems.The South African-born billionaire has for weeks been signaling that he would reduce his political role to refocus on his businesses.Early this month, Musk acknowledged that his ambitious effort to slash US federal spending did not fully reach its goals, despite tens of thousands of job cuts and drastic budget reductions.This week, he said he would pull back from spending his fortune on politics, although he did not rule out backing future causes “if I see a reason.”Of his recent political donations, he said: “I did what needed to be done.”