Antifa Groups Charged with Violently Countering California ‘Patriot March’

Prosecutors have charged approximately seven individuals, described as self-identified anti-fascists, regarding eight alleged assaults in January amid a Pacific Beach “Patriot March,” the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Monday. The march event was organized by supporters of former President Donald Trump. The Union-Tribune article continued: Those arraigned Monday in San Diego Superior Court were among a group arrested Thursday in raids by police officers and sheriff’s deputies across Southern California. Prosecutors allege the defendants “are self-identified to be affiliated with Anti-fascists or Antifa,” according to a criminal complaint, and began organizing themselves — with one group originating in San Diego and the other in Los Angeles — a week before the pro-Trump rally. DA charges San Diego, Los Angeles Antifa groups with violently countering P.B. Patriot March https://t.co/VZRw2NhCwx pic.twitter.com/zpkme3sPhl — San Diego Union-Tribune (@sdut) December 7, 2021 It is thought to be one of the first cases to use conspiracy charges, in this instance conspiracy to commit riot, to focus on alleged members of Antifa, the article stated. A criminal complaint said the defendants charged started the criminal conspiracy “by liking and sharing” a January 2 social media post. The post reportedly called for a counterprotest on the pro-Trump event, “in essence agreeing to take part in the ‘direct action.’ Others agreed by showing up in Pacific Beach on January 9th, 2021 and participating in the violence” noted in the complaint, prosecutors asserted. The individuals were accused of using pepper spray, small flag poles, sticks, and additional items to attack event participants on January 9 in the street and boardwalk located near Crystal Pier. #breaking trump supporters clash with BLM and antifa on the boardwalk in PB. Heavy police presence some fights and scuffles. Pepper spray etc (not from pd). @fox5sandiego pic.twitter.com/SrMjWnISlZ — Paul makarushka (@heyguyfox5) January 9, 2021   Aerial footage also showed police trying to break up the protest in Pacific Beach: Many of the attacks noted in the complaint reportedly matched incidents that were filmed and posted online, such as a clip of a counterprotester pepper spraying a dog and the animal’s owner, the Union-Tribune report said. “Video evidence analysis shows that overwhelmingly the violence in this incident was perpetrated by the Antifa affiliates and was not a mutual fray with both sides crossing out of lawful First Amendment expression into riot and violence,” District Attorney Summer Stephan’s office noted in press release. The post Antifa Groups Charged with Violently Countering California Patriot March appeared first on Patabook News .

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Olaf Scholz succeeds Angela Merkel as German chancellor, opening new era

BERLIN (AP) — Olaf Scholz became Germany‘s ninth post-World War II chancellor Wednesday, opening a new era for the European Union’s most populous nation and largest economy after Angela Merkel’s 16-year tenure. Scholz’s government takes office with high hopes of modernizing Germany and combating climate change but faces the immediate challenge of handling the country’s toughest phase yet of the coronavirus pandemic. Lawmakers voted by 395-303 to elect Scholz, with six abstentions — a comfortable majority, though short of the 416 seats his three-party coalition holds in the 736-seat lower house of parliament. That’s not unusual when chancellors are elected, and some lawmakers were out sick. Scholz exchanged fist bumps with lawmakers from across the political spectrum before German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier formally appointed him as chancellor. He was due to be sworn in by the speaker of parliament later Wednesday. Merkel, who is no longer a member of parliament, looked on from the spectators’ gallery as parliament voted. Lawmakers gave her a standing ovation as the session started. Scholz, 63, Germany’s vice chancellor and finance minister since 2018, brings a wealth of experience and discipline to an untried coalition of his center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats. The three parties are portraying the combination of former rivals as a progressive alliance that will bring new energy to the country after Merkel‘s near-record time in office. “We are venturing a new departure, one that takes up the major challenges of this decade and well beyond that,” Scholz said Tuesday. If the parties succeed, he added, “that is a mandate to be reelected together at the next election.” The new government aims to step up efforts against climate change by expanding the use of renewable energy and bringing Germany‘s exit from coal-fired power forward from 2038, “ideally” to 2030. It also wants to do more to modernize the country, including improving its notoriously poor cellphone and internet networks. It also plans more liberal social policies, including legalizing the sale of cannabis for recreational purposes and easing the path to German citizenship while pledging greater efforts to deport immigrants who don’t win asylum. The coalition partners want to lower the voting age in national elections from 18 to 16. The government also plans to increase Germany‘s minimum wage to 12 euros ($13.50) per hour from the current 9.60 euros, which Scholz has said “means a wage increase for 10 million.” And the coalition also pledged to get 400,000 new apartments per year built in an effort to curb rising rental prices. Scholz has signaled continuity in foreign policy, saying the government would stand up for a strong European Union and nurture the trans-Atlantic alliance. The three-party alliance brings both opportunities and risks for all the participants, perhaps most of all the Greens. After 16 years in opposition, they will have to prove that they can achieve their overarching aim of cutting greenhouse gas emissions while working with partners who may have other priorities. Greens co-leader Robert Habeck will be Scholz‘s vice chancellor, heading a revamped economy and climate ministry. The government’s No. 3 official will be Christian Lindner, the finance minister and leader of the Free Democrats, who insisted that the coalition reject tax hikes and looser curbs on running up debt. The incoming government is portraying itself as a departure in both style and substance from the “grand coalitions” of Germany‘s traditional big parties that Merkel led for all but four years of her tenure, with the Social Democrats as junior partners. In those tense alliances, the partners sometimes seemed preoccupied mostly with blocking each other’s plans. Merkel‘s final term saw frequent infighting, some of it within her own center-right Union bloc, until the pandemic hit. She departs with a legacy defined largely by her acclaimed handling of a series of crises, rather than any grand visions for Germany. Scholz told his party last weekend that “it was difficult” governing with Merkel’s bloc, which his Social Democrats narrowly beat in Germany‘s September election. He criticized the Union bloc’s “this-far-and-no-further conservatism.” The agreement to form a coalition government between three parties that had significant differences before the election was reached relatively quickly and in unexpected harmony. “If the good cooperation that worked while we were forming the government continues to work, it will be a very, very good time for the tasks that lie ahead of us,” Scholz said. He acknowledged that dealing with the pandemic “will demand all our strength and energy.” German federal and state leaders last week announced tough new restrictions that largely target unvaccinated people. In a longer-term move, parliament will consider a general vaccine mandate. Germany has seen daily COVID-19 infections rise to record levels this fall, though they may now be stabilizing, and hospitals are feeling the strain. The country has seen over 103,000 COVID-19 deaths in the pandemic so far. Merkel has said she won’t seek another political role after shepherding Germany through a turbulent era. The 67-year-old hasn’t disclosed any future plans but said earlier this year that she will take time to read and sleep, “and then let’s see where I show up.” Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC. (function (d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.5"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, script, facebook-jssdk)); The post Olaf Scholz succeeds Angela Merkel as German chancellor, opening new era appeared first on Patabook News .

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Father Pfleger, residents demand leaders address growing Chicago violence

CHICAGO — On Tuesday, discussions were held to try and rein in some of the city’s violence problems. Earlier in the day, Chicago residents gathered with Father Michael Pfleger, of St. Sabina Church, to make some demands. They want city and state leaders to address Chicago’s growing violence. Father Pfleger pointed to data analyzed by the University of Chicago Crime Lab — which found the homicide rate among Blacks in Chicago is the highest it’s ever been in the city’s history. “At least 4,501 people have been shot in Chicago this year, and while we hear daily reports on COVID, the city was silent about the blood in our streets,” Pfleger said. The social activist offered up ten demands he believes city leaders can implement to improve the violence. Among those, Father Pfleger believes residents should be allowed to testify anonymously and witnesses of homicides should be provided protection. The St. Sabina leader also believes an increase in police staffing and task forces will help in solving crimes. “We have to do something more than just taking away days off for police officers who are already stressed out in this city,” Father Pfleger said. Ald. Matt O’Shea hosted a telephone town hall meeting Tuesday night to talk, in part, about crime. During the town hall, 22nd District Commander Sean Joyce answered questions from residents. “Having a high visibility presence to try and deter criminals from coming into the 19th ward and perpetrating these types of crimes, we have them be high visible,” he said. Read more Chicago News Headlines here When asked about what residents can do to help, police said to call 911 whenever you see something suspicious. Close Modal Suggest a Correction Suggest a Correction The post Father Pfleger, residents demand leaders address growing Chicago violence appeared first on Patabook News .

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Opening statements in Daunte Wright manslaughter case expected today : NPR

In this screen grab from video, Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu presides over jury selection in the trial of former police Officer Kim Potter in the April 11, 2021, death of Daunte Wright. AP hide caption toggle caption AP In this screen grab from video, Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu presides over jury selection in the trial of former police Officer Kim Potter in the April 11, 2021, death of Daunte Wright. AP MINNEAPOLIS — Jurors will be presented with starkly different views of the Minnesota police officer who killed Black motorist Daunte Wright during opening statements at her manslaughter trial Wednesday, with the defense claiming that Kim Potter made an innocent mistake by pulling her handgun instead of her Taser and the prosecution portraying her as a veteran cop who had gone through extensive training that warned of such a mix-up. Potter, 49, is charged with first-degree and second-degree manslaughter in Wrights April 11 death in Brooklyn Center. The white former officer – she resigned two days after the shooting – has said she meant to use her Taser on the 20-year-old Wright after he tried to drive away from a traffic stop as officers tried to arrest him, but that she grabbed her handgun instead. Her body camera recorded the shooting. A mostly white jury was seated last week, setting the stage for testimony to begin in a case that sparked angry demonstrations outside the Brooklyn Center police station last spring. Those demonstrations, with protesters frequently clashing with police in riot gear, happened as former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin was on trial just 10 miles (16 kilometers) away for killing George Floyd. Potter was training a new officer when they pulled Wright over for having expired license plate tags and an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror, according to a criminal complaint. When they found that Wright had an outstanding arrest warrant, they tried to arrest him but he got back into his car instead of cooperating. Potters body-camera video recorded her shouting Taser, Taser, Taser and Ill tase you before she fired once with her handgun. Afterward, she is heard saying, I grabbed the wrong (expletive) gun. To bolster their claim that it was an accident, defense attorneys have highlighted Potters immediate reaction and later body-camera footage that hasnt been seen by the public in which Potter is said to have repeatedly expressed remorse. But they have also asserted that Potter was within her rights to use deadly force if she had consciously chosen to do so because Wrights actions endangered other officers at the scene. She believed the use of a Taser was appropriate when she saw Mr. Wrights abject denial of his lawful arrest coupled with his attempted flight, defense attorney Paul Engh wrote in a pretrial filing seeking to dismiss one of the charges. She could have shot him. Prosecutors have countered that Potter had been trained on Taser use several times during her 26-year police career, including twice in the six months that preceded the shooting. In one of their own pretrial filings, they cited training that explicitly warns officers about confusing a handgun with a Taser and directs them to learn the differences between their Taser and firearm to avoid such confusion. Potter, they argued in their filing, consciously and intentionally acted in choosing to use force on Daunte Wright and in reaching for, drawing, pointing, and manipulating a weapon. A jury of 14 people, including two white alternates, will hear the case. Nine of the 12 jurors likely to deliberate are white, one is Black and two are Asian. The jurys racial makeup is roughly in line with the demographics of Hennepin County, which is about 74% white. But the jury is notably less diverse than the one that convicted Chauvin in Floyds killing. Potter has told the court she will testify. The most serious charge against Potter requires prosecutors to prove recklessness, while the lesser requires them to prove culpable negligence. Minnesotas sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of just over seven years on the first-degree manslaughter count and four years on the second-degree one. Prosecutors have said they will seek a longer sentence. The post Opening statements in Daunte Wright manslaughter case expected today : NPR appeared first on Patabook News .

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Afghans adjust to temporary life on U.S. military bases

JOINT BASE McGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. —  A new father stopped Col. Soleiman Rahel as he walked through the old soldiers’ barracks, now dormitories for thousands of people evacuated after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. “I want you to know I named my son after you,” the man told him. The gesture stands out for Rahel as a symbol of the significance of his work assisting the largest U.S. resettlement effort in half a century. For Rahel, it’s personal — 35 years ago, he too arrived from Afghanistan as a refugee. When the Taliban stormed Kabul in August, Rahel temporarily left his wife and home in Sacramento and moved across the country to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. Afghans there know him as “the governor” of their new village. Flights of up to 300 Afghans arrive at the base a couple of times a week. Three housing complexes make up Liberty Village. It is the largest of seven “safe havens” on military bases around the country where the federal government is working to process some 35,000 evacuees — and the only one still accepting new arrivals. During the facility’s first, closely supervised media tour, Department of Defense and Homeland Security officials showed reporters a children’s English class, an impromptu soccer game, a dining hall serving halal meals and a sprawling tented medical facility with capacity to see 400 patients per day. “We have built a small city,” said Gen. Adrian White, who is in charge of the 2,000 personnel who operate the village of 11,100 Afghans — referred to as “guests” — awaiting resettlement. “Our unwavering goal has been to make their life in this temporary location better every day.” Jemimah Sampong, a licensed practical nurse, attends to a 9-day-old child as her mother looks on in the pediatric ward of a medical facility at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. (Barbara Davidson / Pool Photo ) The federal government has evacuated 83,000 people from Afghanistan to the U.S., including nearly 75,000 Afghans and 8,000 U.S. citizens and green card holders. An additional 3,200 evacuees are waiting for U.S.-bound flights at military bases in the Middle East and Europe, according to Homeland Security. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas told lawmakers last month that the timeline to complete resettlement is between December and February. The short-term spending bill that President Biden signed last week to keep the government running into February includes $7 billion for Afghan resettlement efforts. The last-minute evacuation meant resettlement agencies didn’t have lead time to find housing for refugee families. The refugees are desperate to get off the bases and find jobs so they can start sending money back home. Afghanistan’s economy is collapsing and people are facing starvation. Many of those who have arrived want to end up in places with large Afghan communities, such as Washington, D.C., and California, but those regions have high rents. On Thursday, many families were out for a brisk morning walk, several pushing strollers. Six boys in traditional tunic shirts and pants kicked around a soccer ball, cheering when one scored a goal. Those on the base can also opt for daily legal counseling sessions, Zumba sessions, English classes and cultural orientation classes with topics including sexual consent and how to navigate police interactions. At a conversational English class, two Afghan volunteer teachers stood before a few dozen children. On a whiteboard, they had written the vocabulary words of the day: stand, sit, hot, cold, table, chair. In unison, the students chanted sentences using their new words. “This is a chair. That is a table.” Jeff Drumtra, who leads social programming for the refugees at McGuire, said some children are working though their trauma and loss in drawings. “You see the colors of the Afghan flag, either as a flag or in a heart. Some drawings have blood droplets coming from the heart,” he said. An Afghan girl at Liberty Village, her temporary home at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. (Barbara Davidson / Pool Photo ) Among those young artists is Sana Khairi, 18, who had been at the base for 47 days. In that time, she had finished 15 pieces in ink, colored pencil and oil paint. Her favorite depicted four Afghan soldiers struggling to raise their country’s flag. “We never want to let anybody think that we’re going to let the Afghan flag drop on the floor,” she said in Dari through an interpreter. Khairi said her father was in the Afghan military and worked with U.S. troops. When she and her parents arrived at the Kabul airport, he couldn’t make it safely through Taliban checkpoints and was left behind. Now he is in hiding. Though she loves art and writing, Khairi said she dreams of being a surgeon — something that felt impossible in Afghanistan because of limited education and opportunities for women. At Liberty Village, a linguist helped her translate some of her poems into English to share with military personnel. One, written Sept. 1 at a military base in Germany, is called “I Am a Refugee.” “O motherland, your season changed. Your treasures, unseen. Your children, buried. Your flag, lowered. You have been abandoned. O motherland, you are forgotten. I packed for a journey. I don’t know its destination. My dreams like torn pages fall from your sky, and you fell in the hands of unkind.” Families like Khairi’s are screened before they arrive. Homeland Security reviews fingerprints, photos and biometric and biographic data for all Afghans before they are permitted to board a flight to the U.S. Upon arrival, guests are taken for medical screening and vaccinated against COVID-19 and other illnesses. Dari, Pashto, Persian, Tajik and Urdu interpreters are on hand. Afghan refugee women wait to be seen by a doctor in the medical tent at Liberty Village on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey. (Barbara Davidson / Pool Photo ) Just 3,500 of the 14,000 people housed at Liberty Village since it opened have been resettled, said Katy Swartz, an acting team lead with the State Department. Among all evacuated Afghans, more than 40% are eligible for special immigrant visas that are given to those who worked directly with the U.S. government, she said. The others, who got out amid the chaotic U.S. withdrawal, will face a case-by-case determination of their eligibility to stay. Many will seek refugee status or asylum, while others will seek green cards through immediate relatives who are U.S. citizens or residents. All arriving Afghans were temporarily admitted to the U.S. with protection from deportation for two years. More than 100 babies — including baby Rahel — have been born since the first Afghans arrived at McGuire on Aug. 24. Just under half of the guests are children younger than 14. Each housing complex is overseen by a lieutenant colonel who is identified as the “mayor” and holds weekly town halls with residents. Two “governors,” including the elder Rahel, oversee the entire village. Rahel came to the U.S. at age 15 after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Assisting Afghans in a similar position feels like his life’s purpose, he said. Villagers ask if they could someday join the military like he did. (Of course, he tells them.) Children ask if he is Afghan or American. (He explains he is both.) The hardest questions are from people asking how to bring over additional family members who are stuck in Afghanistan, including thousands of Afghan government workers, teachers, journalists and others at risk of persecution under Taliban rule and unable to move freely. “It’s heartbreaking because there isn’t much we can do,” he said. He tries to get people to focus on rebuilding their lives — the quicker they can transition to normality after resettlement, the quicker they can get jobs and assist their loved ones. After Liberty Village goes back to just being Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, Rahel said, his work on Afghan resettlement will continue. Rahel’s wife recently took in three Afghan women after her husband met two of them at the base and they relocated to California. He connected a 12-year-old boy who was a gifted soccer player to a team in the Bronx, N.Y. The couple plan to become foster parents for Afghan children who were evacuated without parents or guardians. window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({ appId: 134435029966155, xfbml: true, version: v12.0 }); }; if (document.getElementById(facebook-jssdk) === null) { const js = document.createElement(script); js.id = facebook-jssdk; js.src="https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js"; js.async = true; js.setAttribute(crossorigin, anonymous) window.setTimeout(function () { document.head.appendChild(js); }, 1500); } The post Afghans adjust to temporary life on U.S. military bases appeared first on Patabook News .

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Source: Cheryl Reeve To Be Next US Women’s Basketball Team Coach – WCCO

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Lynx’s Cheryl Reeve will be the next USA Basketball national team coach, a person with knowledge of the situation said Tuesday. The person spoke to The Associated Press Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been publicly announced. USA Basketball will hold a news conference on Wednesday in Minnesota. The WNBA coach has been an assistant on the last two Olympic teams,. She will be the first professional women’s basketball coach to lead the team since Anne Donovan was courtside for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. UConn’s Geno Auriemma was the coach in the 2012 and 2016 Games. South Carolina’s Dawn Staley led the Americans to a seventh consecutive gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics this past summer. Reeve served as an assistant coach to both Staley and Auriemma. The veteran coach has won four WNBA championships with Minnesota. Cheryl Reeve (credit: CBS) The U.S. is in a bit of transition with five-time Olympic gold medalist Sue Bird retiring from international play. Her backcourt partner for all those gold medals, Diana Taurasi, hasn’t decided whether she will keep playing for USA Basketball or retire as well. Four-time Olympic gold medalist Sylvia Fowles, who plays for Reeve in Minnesota, also said she is retiring from USA Basketball. The Americans still will have a dominant interior presence with Britnney Griner, A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart. Reeve’s first major international event will be the World Cup next fall in Australia. The Americans earned an automatic berth to it by winning the Olympics. The U.S. will host a four-team qualifying tournamen t for the World Cup in February that includes Russia, Belgium and Puerto Rico. (© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) The post Source: Cheryl Reeve To Be Next US Women’s Basketball Team Coach – WCCO appeared first on Patabook News .

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Three more missionaries released after kidnapping in Haiti earlier this year

Another three of the 17 United States and Canadian missionaries kidnapped in Haiti by an armed gang back in October have been freed. The post Three more missionaries released after kidnapping in Haiti earlier this year appeared first on Patabook News .

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