News-Middle East: It was in May last year when 46 year old African American George Floyd died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes during an arrest. The unarmed black man's death in police custody triggered mass protests, not only in the US but around the world.

In June last year, the US House of Representatives passed a sweeping police reform bill in response to widespread calls for action against police brutality.

The proposed legislation would have banned chokeholds and limited immunity for officers and would have set national policing standards, but bipartisan negotiations in the US Senate over the police reform bill have collapsed.