Dozens of protesters arrested in US

US riot officers arrested dozens of people in Louisiana’s capital Baton Rouge during protests over the killings of black people by police. 

Demonstrations around the US also saw activists attempt to block some key road routes.

Police in riot gear prevented a group of protesters in Baton Rouge from entering a major artery, Interstate 110, thwarting a tactic which social justice activists have increasingly attempted in some major cities in protest over the deaths.

One officer was injured after he was hit by a projectile during Sunday’s protest.

Tensions between black citizens and police have risen since last week’s killings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Minnesota by white officers, and a retaliatory attack on white police by a black sniper in Dallas that killed five officers and wounded several others.

More than 1,000 people left a Black Lives Matter rally in Memphis, Tennessee, and occupied a key bridge over the Mississippi River on Sunday night, temporarily blocking all traffic on Interstate 40.

On the west coast, hundreds of protesters poured into the streets of Southern California late on Sunday night, shutting down a major intersection and blocking traffic on the 405 Freeway.

Authorities told the Los Angeles Times there were no arrests and no reports of violence.

Several hundred people also blocked an area of Interstate 94 in Minneapolis-St Paul on Saturday.

Hundreds marched onto I-264 in Portsmouth, Virginia, marooning motorists for hours inside the area’s Downtown Tunnel recently.

In recent days, demonstrators failed in a bid to block highways in Atlanta and Columbia, South Carolina, while in San Francisco police managed to keep them off the Bay Bridge.

Meanwhile, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has been criticised after he said the term “black lives matter” is “inherently racist”.

Mr Giuliani said: “When you say ‘black lives matter’, that’s inherently racist.”

He went on to say: “Black lives matter. White lives matter. Asian lives matter. Hispanic lives matter. That’s anti-American and it’s racist.”

He also said black children face a greater threat from other black children than they do from police.