TOP OF THE HOUR:

— NBA's Bucks lead thousands of fans in public protest march through downtown Milwaukee.

— Peaceful protests continue in New York City.

— Police in Brussels detained 150 people and fired a water cannon to quell unrest.

— Chicago mayor lifts curfew and restores full train and bus service.

— Protesters dump slaver's statue into harbor in England.

___

The Milwaukee Bucks led thousands of fans on what the team described as a public protest march through downtown Milwaukee in support of social justice.

Bucks officials estimated that 7,500 people participated.

Before the march, Bucks guard Sterling Brown led the crowd in 9 seconds of silence to honor George Floyd.

Brown has a pending lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee, saying that police used excessive force and targeted him because he is black when they used a stun gun on him on Jan. 26, 2018.

“It’s great to see everybody out here standing as one, standing for equality, standing for George Floyd and his family and everybody who’s been a victim to police brutality,” Brown told the crowd before the march.

Brown was at the front row with many of his Bucks teammates and led the crowd in various chants that included “black lives matter,” “no justice, no peace” and “We will be seen, we will be heard.”

Several of the Bucks players also had participated in a local march against police brutality on Saturday night.

“We’re here as one,” Brown told the crowd beforehand. “We’re making something great happen. We’re making something positive happen, something that’s heard around the world.”

___

NEW YORK — Peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd have continued in New York City with thousands of demonstrators, most of them wearing masks, walking through Manhattan without a looming curfew.

The city had been scheduled to leave its 8 p.m. curfew in place through at least Sunday night. But Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in the morning that it would be nixed, saying, “Yesterday and last night we saw the very best of our city.”

New York City police pulled back on enforcing the curfew Saturday night, as thousands took to the streets for another day of marches and rallies sparked by the May 25 death of Floyd.

The citywide curfew was the first in decades.

___

BRUSSELS — Police in Brussels detained 150 people and fired a water cannon to quell unrest after a Black Lives Matter protest that drew thousands of people on Sunday.

The city mayor, Philippe Close, blamed the violence on “delinquents” and noted that the 10,000 people who demonstrated earlier in the day did so calmly. Video on social media showed youths smashing shop windows.

The multiracial crowd that demonstrated earlier filled a large square in front of the city’s main courthouse.

Protesters held up white roses and placards decrying racism. “You think you are tired of hearing about racism? We are tired of experiencing it” read a cardboard placard held up by a young black woman.

Belgium media RTBF reported that people also gathered in the cities of Anvers and Gand, where demonstrators observed a silence of 8 minutes and 46 seconds. That corresponds to the length of time that prosecutors say George Floyd was pinned to the ground under a white Minneapolis police officer’s knee.

___

CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot has lifted Chicago's curfew and the city has reopened downtown train stations and allowed full bus service to resume following days of protests that largely remained peaceful.

Lightfoot imposed the 9 p.m. curfew on May 30 during a night of unrest that included widespread vandalism and break-ins that followed peaceful protests earlier that day over the death of George Floyd.

Access to the Loop was limited to essential workers for days, with bridges over the Chicago River raised and streets blocked. Several hundred Illinois National Guard were brought into Chicago to enforce the limited access. The mayor announced the lifting of the curfew Sunday on Twitter.

Meanwhile, demonstrations over Floyd's death and police brutality continued on Sunday, with hundreds gathering at an intersection on the city's South Side.

Community activist Jahmal Cole says that since many stores boarded their windows and shut down because of the protests, parts of the South Side have become food and pharmacy deserts, with residents having to travel 15 to 20 minutes for milk or their medications.

___

DEARBORN, Mich — Crews in Dearborn, Michigan, have removed a statue of the city's longest-serving mayor, who favored segregationist policies and made racist comments over his 35-year tenure that ended in 1977.

The statue of Orville Hubbard had been on the grounds of the Dearborn Historical Museum for several years after it was removed from the former City Hall campus in 2015. It was taken down Friday.

A city spokeswoman says the statute had become a “divisive symbol rather than a unifying one.” Calls for the statue to be removed were renewed in light of the widespread protests over George Floyd’s death. Hubbard died in 1982.

Dearborn is next to Detroit and has the largest Muslim population in the U.S.

___

WASHINGTON — Newly named Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House is full of peaceful protesters and has the communal feeling of a street fair.

Federal law enforcement officers and National Guard members who had been out in force for a week have largely withdrawn and have been replaced by city police in Washington, D.C., who have blocked off adjacent roads to give demonstrators space.

The jingles of ice cream trucks are mixing with protest chants. Protesters are posing with the new sign the city painted in big yellow block letters on 16th Street that reads “BLACK LIVES MATTER.”

___

LONDON — Anti-racism protesters in the southwestern England port city of Bristol have toppled the statue of a prominent slave trader and dumped it into the harbor.

Footage from local broadcaster ITV News West Country shows demonstrators attach ropes to the statue of Edward Colston before pulling it down on Sunday and eventually dumping it into the harbor.

Images on social media show protesters appearing to kneel on the statue's neck, recalling how a white Minneapolis police officer used his knee to pin down George Floyd's neck before the handcuffed black man died May 25.

Colston, who was born in 1636, has been a controversial figure in Bristol. Among efforts to “decolonize” the city have been calls to remove his name from its biggest music venue, Colston Hall.

In his 40s, Colston was prominently involved in Britain’s sole official slaving company at the time, the Royal African Company, which transported tens of thousands of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean, mainly to the Caribbean.

Bristol, an an international port, was a center of the slave trade and benefited hugely financially.

Britain formally abolished the slave trade in 1807.

___

MILAN — A few thousand people gathered outside the central train station in Italy's financial capital, Milan, to protest racism and the recent death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Many in the crowd Sunday were migrants or the children of migrants from Africa. Organizers told participants that in Italy, the Black Lives Matter slogan means avoiding "seeing black bodies as if they’re foreigners” and not as citizens. One said it means not delaying legislative reform to make it easier to receive citizenship.

Foreigners born in Italy aren’t automatically eligible for citizenship until they reach 18 after continuously living in the country. Efforts in recent years have failed to enact legislation to allow foreigners’ children born in Italy to become citizens while still minors if they’ve attended Italian schools. Such parents complain that their children are viewed as second-class citizens even though they identify as Italian and speak the language fluently.

Many protesters wore masks or disposable gloves, and one of the organizers used a loudspeaker to remind people not to share objects and to stay a safe distance apart. Italy has greatly eased its coronavirus restrictions in recent weeks as the rate of contagion steadily slowed.

___

HOUSTON — Houston’s police chief says the body of George Floyd has arrived in Texas for a final memorial service and funeral.

Police Chief Art Acevedo tweeted early Sunday that Floyd’s family also arrived safely. A six-hour viewing for Floyd is planned for Monday in Houston, followed by funeral services and burial Tuesday in the suburb of Pearland.

Floyd, who was handcuffed and black, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for several minutes as Floyd begged for air and eventually stopped moving. His death has inspired protests around the world and served as a rallying cry against institutional racism.

Previous memorials were held for Floyd in Minneapolis and Raeford, North Carolina, which is near where he was born.

___

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hundreds of people have attended a peaceful rally outside the U.S. embassy in Budapest to express their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. sparked by the death of George Floyd.

Speeches and songs like Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” and Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” were heard on Liberty Square before the crowd knelt for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. That was the amount of time that a white Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on the the neck of Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air before eventually going motionless during his May 25 arrest for suspicion of using a counterfeit bill at a shop.

The demonstration was one of many held throughout the world this weekend over Floyd's death and institutional racism.

Elizabeth Sadusky, a U.S. student in Hungary, said: “I think having these kinds of events around the world is really important to show solidarity and to show the rest of the world that the U.S. isn’t perfect.”

___

MADRID — Several thousand people have gathered in Spain’s main cities to show their support for the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States and to denounce racial discrimination in Europe.

A few thousand protesters gathered around the U.S. embassy in Madrid on Sunday. Many carried homemade signs reading “Black Lives Matter,” “Human rights for all” and “Silence is pro-racist.”

Protesters chanted “Police murderers!” and “No justice, no peace!” Police were present but the atmosphere remained peaceful. Social distancing was difficult, however everyone wore a mask.

Thimbo Samb, a spokesman for the group that organized the protest, says the demonstration was to protest the death of George Floyd but also to call attention to racism in Spain and elsewhere in Europe.

Thousands also filled a central square in Barcelona and there were other protests called for in smaller cities.

___

In Rome’s sprawling People’s Square, thousands of demonstrators turned out for the city's first major rally against racism.

With a great majority wearing masks to protect themselves against the coronavirus, participants listened to speeches for several hours and held up hand-made placards reading “Black Lives Matter” and “It’s a White Problem.” At one point the protesters, most of them young and some with children or young siblings, kneeled and raised their fists in solidarity with those fighting racism.

“It’s quite unfortunate, you know, in this current 21st century that people of color are being treated as if they are lepers,’’ said 26-year-old Ghanian Abdul Nassir, who was at the rally and is studying in Rome for a master's degree in business management. He said he occasionally has felt racist attitudes, notably when riding the subway.

Migration of people of color to Italy, including from sub-Saharan Africa, was relatively infrequent until about 25 years ago, and there isn’t yet a vast first-generation population who have come of age.

The noisy, peaceful rally had many organizers, including the grassroots protest group Sardines, a women's group, a U.S. expatriates organization, a group called Neri Italiani — Black Italians — and a 25-year-old Roman student, Denise Berhane.

Asked by SKYTG24 if Italy has a racism problem, Berhane said, “There are some problems in the country if all these people turned out.”