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In Sri Lanka right now, before you've woken up, you're losing. 

Power cuts that run late into the sweltering nights steal hours of sleep as the fans cease; whole families waking up sapped from the months-long trial of shuffling their lives around daily blackouts after the country went bankrupt and essentially ran out of fuel, BBC reported.

There are long days to be lived; work days, errands to be run, daily essentials to be bought at twice the price they had been last month. 

All this, you're starting a little more broken than you were last week.

Once you've had breakfast - eating less than you used to, or perhaps nothing at all - the battle to find transport beckons.

In the cities, fuel queues curl around entire suburbs like gargantuan metal pythons, growing longer and fatter by the day, choking roads and crushing livelihoods. 

Tuk-tuk drivers with their eight-litre tanks are forced to spend days lining up before they can run hires again, for 48 hours perhaps, before they are forced to rejoin the queue, bringing pillows, changes of clothes and water to see them through the ordeal.

For a while, middle- and upper-class folk had brought meal packets and soft drinks for those queuing in their neighbourhoods. 

Lately, the cost of food, of cooking gas, of clothes, transport, and even what electricity the state will allow you to have, has sky-rocketed so egregiously as the rupee's value plummeted, that even largesse from the moneyed has been in short supply, according to BBC.

In working-class neighbourhoods, families have begun to band together around wood fire stoves, to prepare the simplest of meals - rice, and coconut sambol. 

Even dhal, a staple of the diet all over South Asia, has become a luxury. Meat? At three times the price it used to be? Forget it. 

Fresh fish was once abundant and affordable. Now, boats can't go out to sea, because there is no diesel. The fishermen that can go out sell their catch at vastly inflated rates to hotels and restaurants out of reach to most, BBC reported.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for violating George Floyd's civil rights, BBC reported.

Chauvin, 46, pleaded guilty to the separate federal civil rights charges in December.

He is already serving a 22-year state prison sentence for the on-duty murder of Mr Floyd, a 46-year-old black man.

The two sentences will run concurrently and Chauvin will now be moved to a federal prison.

But he will almost certainly spend more time behind bars following the sentencing. His sentence is due to be followed by five years of supervised release.

"George's life matters," Mr Floyd's brother, Philonese, said in court on Thursday as he asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence of 25 years.

Chauvin, who is white, was convicted on murder and manslaughter charges in Minnesota for kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes.

The killing - captured on a bystander's phone camera - sparked global outrage and a wave of demonstrations against racial injustice and police use of force, according to BBC.

The federal charges against Chauvin included two counts for depriving Mr Floyd of his rights by kneeling on his neck as he was in handcuffs, and by failing to provide medical care during the May 2020 arrest.

As part of the plea agreement, Chauvin also pleaded guilty to violating the rights of a then-14-year-old boy during another arrest that took place in 2017. 

According to the indictment, Chauvin held the boy by the throat, hit him in the head with a flashlight and held his knee on the boy's neck and upper back while he was handcuffed and not resisting. Like Mr Floyd, the boy was black. 

Prosecutors said that unreleased bodycam footage showed Chauvin kneeling on the boy's back for 17 minutes while he cried out for his mother. 

When Chauvin pleaded guilty, prosecutors asked that he serve his sentence concurrently with his murder sentence. He had been facing life in prison if we were to be convicted at a second criminal trial. 

In court on Thursday, his lawyer requested a sentence of 20 years, saying that he showed respect for the legal process during his trial and is not at risk of repeating his offenses. 

Addressing the court for what is likely to be his final legal hearing for years, Chauvin said that the judge had a difficult decision, given the "politically charged environment," and recognised that the court strives for fairness. 

Addressing Mr Floyd's children, some of whom were present in court, Chauvin said that he wishes them "all the best in their life" and that they have "excellent guidance in becoming good adults". He did not apologise, BBC reported.

"For your actions, you must be held accountable," Judge Paul Magnuson said before handing down the sentence.

He concluded the 35-minute hearing by wishing Chauvin "the very best in his future".

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has collapsed after he was shot at an event in the city of Nara, BBC reported.

According to news broadcaster NHK, Mr Abe was shot from the back and collapsed halfway during his speech, and appeared to be bleeding. His attacker was in custody, it added.

Ex-Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe said in a tweet that Mr Abe was in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest, according to BBC.

Incidents of gun violence are rare in Japan, where handguns are banned.

The term cardiopulmonary arrest is often used in preliminary reports before a death is officially confirmed in Japan, reports say.

The Sajha Yatayat has brought three electric buses into operation from today. The buses were brought from China.

The Sajha Yatayat said that it has decided to bring only three buses into operation in the beginning for trial.

The female drivers will be given priority in these buses.

The Yatayat is planning to operate 37 more buses in the coming days.