As the day unfolded: Derek Chauvin's charge upgraded to second-degree murder as three other Minneapolis police officers charged

"We have a moral moment in our country," Karen Bass, the chairwoman of the CBC, said on a conference call Wednesday.

The political stakes of any police reform effort are high, amplified in an election year by President Donald Trump's "law and order" stance, including his threats to call in the U.S. military to clamp down on protesters. With mass unrest now entering a second week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought to shift the national tone Wednesday by walking and talking with protesters outside the Capitol.

The House is expected to vote by month's end. "We'll be intense, proactive," Pelosi said on MSNBC.

AP

"I don't judge other people's faith," Mr Morrison said.

"It goes back to my answer to the last question, it is not my job to provide political or other commentary on other leaders around the world."

Mr Morrison said the US had been "a good friend" to Australia throughout Mr Trump's presidency.

"He is a straight talker and is easy to get on with," Mr Morrison said.

"He has been straight up with me, I can tell you that. He has been straight up about our relationship and has shown a great interest in Australia. Through his presidency, the United States has been a good friend of ours.

"The relationship is very much about what is best for Australians and the keen interest he has shown."

Former president Jimmy Carter said that more should be done to address the racially discriminatory police and justice system, in a statement on Wednesday. He condemned "immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks."

"We are responsible for creating a world of peace and equality for ourselves and future generations," Carter said.

"It remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country," George W Bush said in a statement on Tuesday.

Barack Obama, the only African American president, has made several statements since Floyd's death.

He said the waves of protests represented "a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system."

The broad support for the protests is a sign of hope and an indication of a will to change, Obama said in an editorial published on Monday by Medium, an online platform.

Bill Clinton called Floyd's death "the latest in a long line of tragedy and injustice, and a painful reminder that a person's race still determines how they will be treated in nearly every aspect of American life."

PA

The arrests in Minneapolis during a frenzied weekend tell a different story. In a nearly 24-hour period from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon, 41 of the 52 people cited with protest-related arrests had Minnesota driver's licenses, according to the Hennepin County sheriff.

In the nation's capital, 86 per cent of the more than 400 people arrested as of Wednesday afternoon were from Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia.

It is not known how many of the people arrested were locked up - an issue at a time when many of the nation's jails are dealing with coronavirus outbreaks. The protesters are often placed in zip-ties and hauled away from the scene in buses.

In Los Angeles, an online fundraising campaign has gathered $US2 million ($2.9 million) so far to help some 2700 people arrested in demonstrations since Floyd died on May 25 in Minneapolis.

Kath Rogers, executive director of the Los Angeles office of the National Lawyers Guild, said she was surprised by the huge number of arrests in that city. The office is calling on those arrested to be in contact so they can be part of the group's mass defence. So far, they have heard from about 400 people, she said.

She said some people had been swept up in the arrests because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, like a woman who was simply going for an evening walk and wasn't part of the protest. Or a young man who was taking pictures of the looting with his phone and then was arrested for looting.

"I've been here for two years and we go to hundreds of demonstrations, but I've never seen rubber bullets flying like this, tear gas used this way," she said.

Los Angeles Chief Michel Moore told the city's Police Commission Tuesday the bulk of the arrests, about 2,500, were for failure to disperse or curfew violations.

The rest were for crimes including burglary, looting, assaults on police officers and other violence, Moore told the panel, which functions as the police department's civilian oversight board.

The only other US city with an arrest toll that comes close to Los Angeles' is New York, with about 2,000, according to AP's tally.

A Los Angeles group called the Peoples City Council Fund as of Wednesday night had gathered more than $2 million for arrested protesters there through the online fundraising platform gofundme. More than 46,000 people donated mostly small amounts, some just $10 or $20.

Fundraiser organisers said hundreds of thousands of the dollars raised will go to Black Lives Matter LA as well as the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive group that has been defending civil rights activists since the 1930s.

The AP tally didn't take into account any additional arrests still unreported from Wednesday evening.

AP