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George Floyd's girlfriend has cried on the witness stand telling the story of how they first met.

The encounter was in 2017 at a Salvation Army shelter where Floyd was a security guard with "this great Southern voice, raspy", Courteney Ross said on day four of former Officer Derek Chauvin's murder trial.

The 45-year-old also recounted how both she and her boyfriend struggled with opioid addiction.

READ MORE: Bodycam shows moments after George Floyd was taken away by ambulance

"Both Floyd and I, our story, it's a classic story of how many people get addicted to opioids," she said.

"We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck and his was in his back."

She said they "tried really hard to break that addiction many times."

Prosecutors put Ms Ross on the stand as part of an effort to humanise Mr Floyd in front of the jury and portray him as more than a crime statistic.

It was also apparently to explain his drug use to the jurors and perhaps get them to empathise with what he went through.

Mr Chauvin, 45, is charged with murder and manslaughter, accused of killing Floyd by kneeling on the 46-year-old Black man's neck for 9 minutes, 29 seconds, as he lay face-down in handcuffs last May.

The most serious charge against the now-fired white officer carries up to 40 years in prison.

READ MORE: 'Disbelief and guilt' as cashier takes the stand in George Floyd trial

The defence has argued Mr Chauvin did what he was trained to do and Mr Floyd's death was caused instead by his illegal drug use, underlying health conditions and the adrenaline flowing through his body.

An autopsy found fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system.

Under cross-examination by defence attorney Eric Nelson, Ms Ross said Mr Floyd's pet name for her in his phone was "Mama" — testimony that called into question the widely reported account that Mr Floyd was crying out for this mother as he lay pinned to the pavement.

In some of the video, Mr Floyd can be heard calling out, "Mama!" repeatedly and saying, "Mama, I love you! … Tell my kids I love them."

In her testimony, Ms Ross described how both she and Mr Floyd struggled with their addiction to painkillers throughout their relationship.

She said they both had prescriptions, and when those ran out, they took the prescriptions of others and also used illegal drugs.

"Addiction, in my opinion, is a lifelong struggle," she said.

"… It's not something that just kind of comes and goes. It's something I'll deal with forever.

READ MORE: Teen who shot George Mr Floyd video says he was 'begging for his life'

In March 2020, Ms Ross drove Mr Floyd to the emergency room because he was in extreme stomach pain, later learning he overdosed.

In the months that followed, she said, spent a lot of time together during the coronavirus quarantine, and Mr Floyd was clean.

She suspected he began using again about two weeks before his death because his behaviour changed.

She said there would be times when he would be up and bouncing around and other times when he would be unintelligible.

Ms Ross began her testimony by telling how the two of them met.

"May I tell the story?" she asked.

"It's one of my favorite stories to tell."

The witness said she had gone to the shelter because her sons' father was staying there.

She said she became upset because the father was not coming to the lobby to discuss their son's birthday. Mr Floyd came over to check on her.

"Mr Floyd has this great Southern voice, raspy. He was like, `Sis, you OK, sis?'" Ms Ross recalled.

"I was tired. We've been through so much, my sons and I, and (for) this kind person just to come up and say, 'Can I pray with you?' … it was so sweet.

"At the time, I had lost a lot of faith in God."

READ MORE: 'The very life was squeezed out of him': George Mr Floyd trial begins

Minnesota is a rarity in explicitly permitting such "spark of life" testimony about a crime victim ahead of a verdict.

Defence attorneys often complain such testimony allows prosecutors to play on jurors' emotions.

Mr Floyd's death, along with the harrowing bystander video of him gasping for breath as onlookers yelled at Mr Chauvin to get off him, triggered sometimes violent protests around the world and demands the US confront racism and police brutality.

Thursday's testimony came a day after prosecutors played extensive video footage documenting the chain of events that culminated in Mr Floyd's death, beginning with his alleged use of a counterfeit $20 bill at a neighbourhood market to pay for a pack of cigarettes.

Bystander and police bodycam video showed officers pulling Mr Floyd from his SUV at gunpoint, then struggling to put him in the back of the squad car as the panicky-sounding man writhed and cried, "I'm claustrophobic!"

The footage also showed Mr Floyd being loaded into an ambulance.

When Mr Floyd was finally taken away, a bystander objected to what Mr Chauvin had done.

"That's one person's opinion," Mr Chauvin could be heard responding.

"We gotta control this guy 'cause he's a sizable guy … and it looks like he's probably on something."

Mr Floyd was 193 centimetres and 101 kilograms, according to the autopsy.

Mr Chauvin's lawyer said the officer was 175 centimetres and 64 kilograms.

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A report commissioned by the Health Department has recommended the government "investigate alternative models" to the highly criticised COVIDSafe app.

The 86-page report examined privacy issues that might arise from using the contact-tracing app but did not find "any additional privacy risks that are likely to significantly adversely affect users".

Among the 11 recommendations is a call for the Department of Health and the Digital Transformation Agency to "investigate alternative models to, and any new technologies relevant to, the app".

READ MORE: COVIDSafe app detected just 17 contacts not found by manual tracers after $7 million spent on advertising

The departments were asked to "examine whether those alternative models or new technologies would offer users enhanced privacy protections", while "noting the already strong privacy protections afforded by Australia's legislative framework."

The app has helped identify 17 unique contacts since it was launched in April last year.

Shadow Health Minister Mark Butler said it had been "a complete waste of taxpayers' money", costing more than $6 million in development. Almost $7 million was spent on advertising and Senate estimates was told it cost $100,000 a month to run.

"After spruiking it for months, the Prime Minister now barely acknowledges its existence," Mr Butler said.

"Once again states filled the gap the Morrison government left with their own QR check-in codes."

Digital Transformation Agency head Randall Brugeaud did not rule out the app being discontinued but said it was a matter for the Department of Health and the AHPPC.

In April 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison labelled COVIDSafe a "ticket to freedom" and "sunscreen equivalent".

The Health Department and the Digital Transformation Agency have been examining an alternative model in widespread use internationally based on tools offered by Apple and Google for their smartphone platforms.

But the government has been concerned about privacy issues associated with that model.

In September last year, then Government Services Minister Stuart Robert said the government "will not outsource our responsibilities to large multinationals".

"The government will not be moving away from our sovereignty," he said.

In a statement to 9News, the Department of Health said it "commissioned Maddocks to undertake this update to the COVIDSafe Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA), to take account of changes since the original PIA which was published on 25 April 2020."

"The Department is continually looking for ways to improve contact tracing to support our public health workers," it said.

The report did not recommend the app be discontinued, instead urging the government to "assess whether the app can and should be further updated or changed to ensure that users have the best possible privacy protections available given Australia's legislative framework".

A Lismore man has been charged with a slew of assault offences after allegedly attacking a security guard, police officers and bystanders after he was asked to wear a mask at a NSW shopping centre.

Police said a security guard stopped the 47-year-old when he walked into the Lismore Central Shopping Centre about 12.40pm on Thursday.

When the guard offered the shopper a mask, the man allegedly punched him in the face and head several times.

READ MORE: NSW Premier gives green light for Easter long weekend travel: 'You're allowed to go anywhere'

A police spokeswoman said more than five members of the public stepped in to help, several of whom were allegedly punched in the face and chest, leaving one man with neck and face bruising.

When police showed up, the man allegedly kicked a male senior constable in the face, chest and hands and continued to kick at police even after being capsicum sprayed.

After being arrested and taken to Lismore police station, he allegedly bit a different male senior constable several times on the hand and wrist.

The officer was taken to the Lismore Base Hospital in a stable condition and the man was charged with a range of assault offences including affray, common assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and several related to assaulting or resisting police.

He was also handed a $1000 penalty infringement notice for allegedly failing to comply with a COVID-19 direction and refused bail to appear at Lismore Bail Court on Friday.

A huge inflatable pink cake with candles spouting rainbow flames glided through Amsterdam's canals Thursday as the Dutch capital celebrated the 20th anniversary of the world's first legal same-sex marriages.

But even as the city marked the milestone in LGBTQ rights, its mayor said that striving for equality remains a work in progress.

"At the same time it is a moment to recognise that the struggle is not yet over; not worldwide, not nationally, but also not in Amsterdam," Mayor Femke Halsema told The Associated Press.

READ MORE: Vatican bars gay union blessing, says God 'can't bless sin'

Since the historic event in Amsterdam 20 years ago, same-sex marriage has been made legal in 28 countries worldwide, as well as the self-governing island of Taiwan.

Gert Kasteel and Dolf Pasker were celebrating 20 years of married life Thursday. It's an anniversary made all the more special as they were among the first four couples who tied the knot just after midnight on April 1, 2001.

Wearing suits and bow ties, they were married in a ceremony led by then-mayor of Amsterdam Job Cohen in a wedding that made headlines around the world.

"It is very nice to look back to see how young we were," said Pasker after watching video of the wedding on the evening before the anniversary.

READ MORE: Mardi Gras crowned a huge success

Amsterdam also marked the anniversary by flying a huge rainbow flag from the bell tower of the landmark Wester Church church next to the Anne Frank House museum.

Later, the city was holding an online symposium, and it designated a "rainbow walk" route along 20 sites considered important in the struggle for LGBTQ rights.

In the city of Utrecht, Mayor Sharon Dijksma officiated the marriage of Romy Schouten and Jeannette van Nus and said the wedding ceremony should be an example for others.

"To all the boys and girls who are sitting at home and thinking, 'Maybe I fall for people of the same sex but I dare not say it,' the message here is: You can be who you are," Dijksma said.

READ MORE: Gay conversion therapy banned in Victoria in 'fight for equality'

Sitting with his husband at a table in their backyard in a small town close to Amsterdam on a warm spring evening Wednesday, Pasker said he is pleased that the trail they blazed has been followed by many other nations.

"Nearly 30 countries followed the Netherlands so that's really very nice. Very good for the gay people and for society as a whole, I think, because it's important that everyone in society feels at home," he said.

Henk Krol, a former editor of the Netherlands' largest gay newspaper, this week called same-sex marriage the country's "most beautiful intangible export."

But COC, the country's largest LGBTQ rights organisation, also said that work toward full equality is not complete in the Netherlands even two decades after the first same-sex marriage.

LGBTQ people "still regularly face exclusion, violence and discrimination," the organisation said in a statement.

READ MORE: US Supreme Court ruling 'as significant' for civil rights as same-sex marriage

Pasker agrees, though he said it has not affected his marriage.

"In our private life it could not be better," he said. "But we know from newspaper, television and people we speak (to) that there still are homophobic people and there is some aggression to gay people. That's still a problem."

But as he counted down to his anniversary, he hoped others could live in the same wedded bliss.

"We wish all gay people in the world that they can have a life as we can live. It's very important," Pasker said.

A rookie London police officer has been found guilty of belonging to a banned neo-Nazi organisation, the first time a British police officer has been convicted of membership of an outlawed far-right group.

After more than 32 hours of deliberation, the jury at the city's Old Bailey court found Benjamin Hannam, 22, guilty of being a member of the extremist group National Action. Hannam also was convicted of lying on his application and vetting forms to join London's Metropolitan Police, and of possessing terror-related documents detailing knife combat and the making of explosive devices.

Judge Anthony Leonard lifted a reporting ban on the case after Hannam admitted possessing an indecent image of a child, which was to have been the subject of a separate trial.

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Hannam was granted bail ahead of his sentencing on April 23 but was warned by the judge that he faced jail.

Hannam had been working as a probationary officer for the Met for nearly two years before he was found on a leaked database of users of the extreme right-wing forum Iron March.

He had signed up to the forum when he joined the London branch of National Action in March 2016.

Hannam's association with National Action ended before he began working for the Met, though he continued to meet high-profile people linked to the group in early 2017.

Counterterrorism officers said they acted "swiftly" once they had become aware of Hannam's past.

Commander Richard Smith, head of the Met's counterterrorism unit, said it was a "unique" case and that there was no evidence Hannam abused his position "to further his extremist views."

The ideology of National Action was described in court as based on "Aryan purity" and a particular hatred of non-white groups, particularly Jews.

READ MORE: Hunting COVID mutations in race to find dangerous strains

"He would never have been able to join had we known then of his interest in the extreme right wing and his previous membership of National Action," Smith said.

Police found neo-Nazi posters when they raided Hannam's home last year, as well as notes detailing his membership of the group and related badges and business cards.

In his defence, Hannam denied he had ever been a member of the group before or after it was banned, and said that he had been "desperate to impress" an older member at the organisation, who had given him free stickers and badges.

He told the court he had been attracted to fascism aged 16 because of its bold artwork, and contacted National Action after seeing its propaganda online.

"I was under the impression this was some kind of youth network," he said.