day 4 of the trial into the killing of george floyd and his former girlfriend takes the stand to describe how both of them suffered with opioid addictions. hello everyone i'm come all santa maria here in tow with that story and the rest of the world it's 2 months since a military coup in me and my deposed civilian leader and son sochi is slapped with the most serious criminal charges that protesters though remain defiant across the

country more promising signs for the pfizer biotech back scene research shows it is highly protective against the south african variant of coke at 19 and the secret behind iraqi gold in a country with no mines also an artisan is to ensure more is done to protect the centuries old industry. in minneapolis and the united states as we bring you continuing coverage of day 4 of the trial of derek shows and the police officer charged with murdering george floyd in minneapolis we have been hearing in the past hour rule so from george floyd's girlfriend courtney ross and gave an emotional testimony about the months leading up to his death. well ross was his partner of 3 years and

described how both she and floyd became addicted to prescription painkillers both for in a r r. r story it's it's a classic story of. how many people get addicted to opioids we both suffer from chronic pain. mine was in my neck and his was in his back. we both had prescriptions. but. after prescriptions. for philip and. we believe we got addicted and and tried really hard to. break that addiction many times so that was a large focus of her testimony was about drug usage but. did also go on to describe

how george ford would take care of itself. like to work out every day he let it wait. there are beyond anything that led to everything the day he did. that a push to pull the this would only of house. if he went out and about he would go away only. he has planes or plane sports with like me or her kids or. anybody really that would pick up any type of bother back and he would he would play in family he would our way involved in that he he would do anything for the problem we had a bowling well played walk that he was with a reason we didn't run to the store. and then a central part of the defense's cross-examination involved her going into some

detail about how floyd suffered a drug overdose in march 2 months before he died i went to go pick up from his house that night. and that. he wasn't feeling his stomach really hurt he was doubled over in pain. i just wasn't feeling well and he said he had to go to the hospital so i took him straight to the hospital. we went to the e.r. . and. they were checking him in the e.r. and it was getting late and i had to get home to my son. that finding. you later learned that that was. due to an overdose. with us so once again mom calls the professor and robert and mary in short

distinguished chair in law at the university of septuplets he's in minneapolis as we await the trial to resume today so. at the risk of repeating myself there is this issue of whether this is well it is the derek show over and trial but b. idea of it drifting into becoming a george floyd trial that's almost what we start to see today but there's a very good reason that the prosecution's doing this. absolutely and in one thing that they were doing today was this spark of life testimony as it sometimes called to to show the victim as a human being what they were like in life and one of the things that was really compelling. and being from here it made more sense that mrs ross said. misra said was was talking about his outdoors a lifestyle you know riding his bike or walks around the lakes this is

a community where that's very much part of the identity of the place that it's a city that's built around these lakes it's a center for biking and many people including myself ride their bike to work which is fairly unusual in the united states and so she was describing someone in a way that for the jurors who are from this community is is well would seem very relatable interesting you made a couple of points last hour which i would like you to go over again if you could this was stuff you picked up from the defense's cross-examination 2 things one things to do with maybe a mix of what john ford was taking drugs wise and also the central would all of mama yeah let's talk about the drugs 1st and we have to remember that opioids are a downer that when we see disasters and overdoses relating to opioids it's people have passed out there unconscious and some of the behavior that was observed in these videos during the arrest of george floyd showed him having having energy

trying to you know pushing back trying not to get into the police car for example then that would seem to indicate a different kind of drug an upper and i think that is what the defense is coming around to is that what he took was something that was a combination of both opioids and an up or like methamphetamine something that does happen on the street that could play into their medical evidence about what might have caused the death. in the 2nd point that really was very subtle the way that the defense lawyer brought it in was that ms ross was referred to by george floyd as mama and then remember there is over and over there's been this testimony and in the video of george floyd calling out for momma as he died and this changed in changes the meaning of doubt a little bit who he was calling out to may have been his biological mother may have

been miss ross that he was calling out to by using the name yeah in fact it was so subtle i'll be perfectly honest with you i missed it at the time so i'm really glad you didn't. bring that up to return to the issue of drugs because that is what the well by the prosecution and the defense were doing a colleague of mine just tweeted and said just a reminder while they were over 81000 drug overdose deaths in the u.s. in the 12 months leading up to may 2020 mostly from synthetic opioids and in less than a manufactured fentanyl the reason i'm saying that is because this is a huge issue in the united states it is i would suspect something that will resonate with the public and maybe the jury. absolutely and the reason is that because the opioid epidemic is so widespread there are not many people in the united states who don't have a family member a relative a work colleague someone that they've known who hasn't struggled with an opioid addiction and again you know we hear this testimony about people who are addicted

that's very human and it's something again that a lot of people have seen in their own lives and that's going to include people on the jury one thing that we need to remember too is that there's a nurse on the jury that one of the the members who's going to decide in this case you know her experience includes dealing with people who are overdosing on opioids in this story will be very familiar to her. still waiting for the trial to start so i will just ask you one more question how do you think the prosecution in particular has handled this today because drugs use was always going to be a huge part of the defense's argument and i guess the prosecution had to get out in front of a pretty early absolutely it's something that as a prosecutor i was trained to do that you preempt some of the defense positions that you go there 1st so that you can create the landscape. and really frame the

issue in a way that's just not going to have as harsh an impact as if the defense was able to go straight away there. so we thank you so much for your time your expertise absolutely invaluable and we'll be back with you again i hope later on once the 2nd session begins right thank you. we'll look at some other news for now the british prime minister barak's johnson is acknowledging more needs to be done to tackle discrimination despite a recent report which denies systemic racism it was commissioned by the government at the height of the global black lies matter movement last year a report which blames family social class and location for existing inequalities campaign is called the findings a white wash but prime minister johnson says the report doesn't necessarily reflect government thinking this is a. a very interesting piece of work you know i didn't say the government who agree with absolutely everything in it but it has some some original ins and stimulating

work in it that i think people need to lean into and to consider there are very serious issues that our society faces. to do with racism that we need to address we've got to we've got to do more to fix it we need to understand the severity of the problem and we look at all the ideas that they put forward and will be will be making our response. 2000000 mom with a deposed civilian a down sunset she's facing the most serious challenge yet this of violating a colonial era official secrets act a lawyer says the court and young gong announced a week ago but it was publicly known only for the 1st time on thursday a new charge against her and 4 others which carries a penalty of up to 14 years in prison well so the military is now shutting down wireless services after earlier cutting mobile internet completely of course for 2 months protesters and activists have been sharing images of the defiance online as

they call for democracy all that has now in this report from scotland. with tears of blood painted on their faces protesters in yangon mourn those killed for demonstrating against the coup this is they mark 2 months since the military power grab that plunged myanmar into crisis and. we are very sad for our fallen heroes and protesters who are still fighting the military but we will never give up the legal team of the pows leader on song suchi thursday announced that she has been charged with violating the country's colonial era officials secrets act she's been detained since february 1st and has also been charged on 2 other accounts and has been accused of bribery it's a crisis that's now spilling outside its borders for the 1st time in more than 20 years myanmar military fighter jets attacked korean ethnic army held areas near the thai border those attacks during the past few days sent thousands of civilians across the border into thailand seeking safety and medical attention it also

prompted the strongest reaction yet from the thai government on the coup next door kind of square free troubled by the reports of more casualties among them in my people during this past week and. we were doing ok. for the exercise of utmost restraint. the escalation of situation into violence and for the release of detainees. some of the ethnic army groups have denounced the coup throwing support behind the protestors and have even called for an increase in attacks on myanmar as military most have spent years fighting for greater autonomy the u.n. envoy on myanmar has warned of a civil war if the situation does not improve some feel that not only is there already a civil war in myanmar but on 2 fronts the streets and the ethnic territories what we're now is a situation of. one which is too much so and it's what the military. started

when they they staged so it's a civil war with the anti-sex and then this 2nd civil war which is going up to 7 deaths which is against all of these it. as protesters in yangon burned copies of the 2008 constitution that gave deep powers to the military a parallel government has been set up by deposed members of parliament mostly from unsung former governing party they have called for a federal democracy that would include the ethnic armed groups. got harder al-jazeera. campaigners are also warning the intensifying crackdown is forcing some to join rebel groups the current national union for example which represents me an ethnic minority along the border with thailand it wants self-determination for its people and its military wing has force against me and the us military finale 70 years a cease fire agreement was signed in 2012 however hostilities reaganite it after

the coup and the current national union is now preparing its fight as last week military jets launched airstrikes on its territory for the 1st time in 20 years and the group has been supporting the protesters by sending a fighters to protect them attacking military positions and cutting off their supply routes is miles wolf is the regional director with human rights organization fortified writes and says the decision to turn to these ethnic groups for training is born out of frustration. this is a culmination of 2 months of brutal crackdown by the burmese military in me a momentary against civilians so it's not necessarily an unexpected development but it is concerning and i think the impacts are great in the sense not just in terms of whether the civil disobedience movement protesters may start seeking to turn to more extreme methods to resist the coup but also what we're seeing there is this sort of extension of the fighting out into the ethnic areas you've seen that the

sort of defacto or parallel government under the name of the. constitution and it's really trying to seek to bring in the ethnic groups that have long had to be using longstanding tensions some cease fire agreements and they've all lapsed actually over the last few weeks there's concern that as been raised already that this may escalate and they will see increased fighting and that's going in in the ethnic areas but that's also going to have a severe impact on the safety and security of the wider population because this is an escalation from the military side the concern i think for the military will be that they could see themselves opened up on many different fronts. and that really is not just a concern as you say for the military but also for the entire populations or so before so there are a very deep concerns i think the military may not have predicted such a unified potentially unified response against the top model and this crew.

now finds a biotech says it's vaccine is highly protective against the south african variant of covert 19 the strain is cause concerns because of its resistance to some bags a nation's finds is also released new data showing its vaccine is overall 91 percent effective even after 6 months now the company is seeking full approval in the united states currently it only has emergency house from alan fischer in washington. initially people thought that the vaccine would be good for probably 90 days so the fact that pfizer came out and said no you're getting 1001 percent protection after 6 months that is very good news and of course it extends the period that people can get vaccinated and then may need another booster job with of also revealed that children between the ages of 12 and 15 are 100 percent protected by their vaccine and as you see the big news is that they tested it for the south

african variant and phoned that it was very effective there was worry that this may well cause problems for this vaccine that it might be able to work its way around and meet people there saying no look we've managed to sort that out we've tested it everything is good here and that's good news for pfizer as well because they can now go to the f.d.a. here in the united states and see we would want full approval for this vaccination because of course you'll remember that they're only operating on temporary american c. approval which was granted to make sure that they could get shots into people's arms and millions of people have received their vaccination this is good news as i see coming on the back of what was essentially bad news on wednesday that's when johnson and johnson said that they were stopping shipments of vaccination to the united states that's because millions of doses of the drug were ruined at a factory in baltimore. minneapolis court is back in session in the

derrick chauvin trial and the prosecution now bringing a paramedic to the west. and has that been the case since you started very that passed through for your care even paramedics. and what's bringing back years into it and. para be him. show me a paramedic you have to be an e.m.t. already which is a fairly short course and. paramedic school was about 12 months long. so. staff yet you say you have to be an e.m.t. 1st 1st let's what's an e.m.t. . it's just it's a lower level certification. but we're limited in your scope and skills and when you can to. give an example my course was like

a 6 credit college course it was so you became an e.m.t. in college actually. attended a course one of the senior high school. senior let's start there just in terms of what your training was 1st in becoming an e.m.t. and then what you went through for that. on any empty course at ridge water my senior high school. and. i started on a volunteer ambulance. where i grew up. and is that why you are still in high school. pretty much as i was graduating it. isn't that there's an additional training path an additional certification that's required to become a paramedic is that right so did you do that immediately afterward or was that was

there some time between well as i. started a paramedic course. 2012. with. the. predator it in 2013. so. you have to train a become a paramedic at each c m c from 2013 is that you said that what does that training entail to become a paramedic. there's a lot of. work. a lot of hands on skills training clinical right alone. and different chemicals and throat hospital. as a year long training. general course of the year. and if you complete that successfully it is there additional testing or certification requirements you have

to go through to become a paramedic yes just a little bit he's already written exam we have to take. your search short of cash and also skills exam. and did you complete that in 2013 you know. i want to maintain your license or status as a paramedic a 2nd time ewing credit or education you have to go through you know we have to recertify every 2 years and are you up to date on all that certification. so let's talk about. your job sort of on a day to day basis what do you do as a paramedic have been e.m.'s. but i work with my partner on an ambulance we respond to. one calls primarily medical emergencies and provide care to patients transport them to the hospital.

what kinds of calls do you get you said medical calls very good anything somebody thought i don't want for. have some of those it's been a. life threatening type of urgency is going to have some of that. cardiac in nature yes. drug overdoses things like that you know other types of things that it's that you respond. for us. mental health problems including that as well. what do you what is your primary objective what is your job when you go out to the scene as a paramedic. to provide. patient and but him safely to a hospital appropriate hospital they need to go to and. also advocate for them when

i need to. and when you say advocate when he met has been sure that their complaint or their problem is her. communicating effectively to receiving hospital as to why they're and emergency room so when you when you're talking about advocating are you part of your process as a paramedic to. hear understand what the patient needs and is going through and pass on that information to the hospital for. i'm going to direct your attention to may 20 fast more all day and last year were you on duty as a paramedic with any amounts on tape i was. and was there a call that you responded to that evening in the area of 38 in chicago yes. what was the nature of that call how did you become aware. we were dispatch. we have

a screen where we get our calls on. your dispatched notes said we're going code 2 for. someone with a mouth injury and petey was on scene and when you say code to what has come to mean routines no later sirens normal driving so he said routine and no lights or sirens does that. what does that indicate to you in terms of. critic ality or how serious that caught my eye would be pretty low criticality low life threatening indication if if we're going to go to. so. where are you coming from when you heard about that's come to you. we were in town tone when we go. out and.

did you get into your ambulance at that time assuming you were responding to a code to call you know if we were you know. ok. did the nature of that car to the code level of that call change at some point you did about a minute and a half after we got it i believe and. what was the change. we got a note saying code 3 so upgraded tillotson sirens emergency response to the scene. and. at that point in time did you have any more information about what the country was. don't know. so you did you perceive as a threat while you were on route did you then upgrade in terms of your response to

the country meeting to turn the lights and sirens ok and ultimately. if you arrive at that location the 30th in chicago location. what did you see when you arrived on scene. as we were blowing up and seeing. multiple officers. on the side of the road with our patient. on the ground next to a squad car. so as a republican up was that the position that you observed them in meaning the officers on top of the patient make sense mark. could you tell that point as you were approaching what. the situation

was are what you what the condition of the patient was at that moment. no there were. multiple officers on top official report of quite. real soon. and i should say i assume there was potentially some struggle still because it was on top of him so it was an. assumption report so when you got to the scene having no additional information. that's for you what's going through your mind is that you know. when you got to the scene. what did you next. part of the ambulances. i want to the back of them don't smoke. walked over to check on the patient and what did you see when you got out of that. in terms of. the patient's condition at

that point i was standing. a little ways away so i could get a. partner would have a. more accurate description of his condition of 0 point but from what i can see where i was i didn't. see any preventing or movement or anything like that did he appear to be unresponsive to you at that point in time more i could tell i'm just standing from a distance. and. was he in handcuffs you know. we're describing the patient here was that patient later identified for us. so. when you got out your partner 1st approached us that right. well what were you doing. at that initial point in time when you 1st. as he went over to check on the patient i was watching him to kind of get a q. what we were going to do next because. determining

what the patient's condition was. so i was kind of waiting for him to go check on the patient and then know what to do next and that might in time when you were standing outside 'd your partner approaching a patient did you see a struggle of any kind going on any movement anything like that. so after your part your partner. first pressured you see what he was doing. you checked polls. on his no crowd of polls. and also you checked people. and did you. discuss with your partner at that point next that. you know he walked towards me and.