No comment by me is necessary.  The  Deutsche Welle article with a little help from the New York Times and The Guardian says it all.

The Guardian 6.28.2019

Megan Rapinoe showed no sign of stemming her outspoken ways after scoring the goals that saw USA march one step closer towards the World Cup final.

“Go gays!” she said after the 2-1 quarter-final victory over France in Paris and when asked to comment on whether it being Pride month made her contribution more personally significant. “You can’t win a championship without gays on your team – it’s never been done before, ever. That’s science, right there!

Deutsche Welle 6.28.2019

PARIS – In a game billed as the biggest in the history of women’s football, the US overcame France in a thrilling contest. Fittingly, in a week when she has grabbed the headlines, Megan Rapinoe proved the match winner.

France 1-2 US
(Renard 81′ – Rapinoe 5′, 65′)

France again left a major tournament with nothing to show for its efforts. It has never finished higher than fourth at the World Cup, the Olympics or the European championships. It has departed its last five major tournaments — two European championships, two World Cups and an Olympics — in the quarterfinals.

Losing at home, to the United States, with the whole world watching, will only make the sting sharper. The Americans merely moved on, forming into a circle and dancing as they moved on to the semifinals for the eighth time in eight Women’s World Cups. (New York Times – bold type paragraphs)

Megan Rapinoe keeps delivering. At the start of the week, it was words. By the end, it was goals. Rapinoe is undoubtedly a woman for the biggest of occasions.

Rapinoe ran away in celebration after her early free kick flew in through a crowd. She stood with one arm raised up, the other raised out. (picture above). It was the celebration of someone who completely understood the irony of the situation. This woman, this hero of resistance, was the match winner just days after she had publicly and colorfully said she wouldn’t go to the White House. Even Rapinoe had to smile.

The 33-year-old has never shirked away from her values, and has made sure the world is actuely aware of what those values are. She has kneeled to protest social inequality in the US, constantly given her voice to the LGBTQ community, and has been a part of the lawsuit against the US soccer federation for equal pay. Everything Rapinoe says or does she does so with such conviction – whether it’s scoring goals in World Cups or supporting people who need to be heard.

In an era where the silence of many footballers is deafening, Rapinoe is loud and proud. For many, she is that rarest of things: an athlete truly worthy of the word hero.

At a time when women’s football is reaching unprecendented levels of attention and recognition, Rapinoe has not just used the platform football has given her to remind the world of her sporting talent but also to give voice to the issues important to her. She cares, not just about things close to her but also about many issues that she never has experienced. Empathetic and expressive, there’s a case to be made that Rapinoe’s football is an extension of who she is. There is no separation for the 33-year-old. From perfect placement to pink hair, she has always stayed true to herself.

At 15, she played her first youth international for the US. She scored her first World Cup goal in 2011. She has overcome three ACL tears. Now, aged 33, she was scoring a brace to guide the US into a World Cup semifinal. In the first half, she was everywhere. In the second, with France finally bursting out of their fear, her lack of defensive cover became a growing concern. The game grew fast and furious, another great piece of evidence that the women’s game is relishing the attention it is finally getting. Then, as she often does, Rapinoe popped up at the end of an excellent team move that exposed an out-of-place France defense to sweep home a second.

There were other heroes on the night, especially after Wendie Renard rose to head in a goal that reinvigorated a home crowd short of hope. Crystal Dunn was outstanding and Alyssa Naeher stayed calm when the US had to weather the storm.

This was Rapinoe’s game though. This was her moment to show the world what she has been doing for so long. The midfielder has said she wants to leave the game in a better state. Nights like this show just how much she is doing for the sport and for the US’ chances of winning another World Cup, but they also send another reminder: just how much of a privilege it is to see and hear Megan Rapinoe in all she does.

https://www.dw.com/en/womens-world-cup-megan-rapinoe-delivers-heroic-performance/a-49407454

July 28, 2019

In sweltering near 90 degree weather in Paris Team USA bests France 2-1 and moves on in the World Cup.  England is next on July 2.

Photo – Lee Heidhues

She makes America proud. Superstar fearless Megan Rapinoe speaks truth to bullying, whether on the soccer Pitch or to the current White House occupant.. Ms. Rapinoe is amped up for Team USA and its Friday match with the French team in Paris.

Excerpted from The Guardian 6.27.2019

 USA midfielder urges teammates to ‘think hard’ about a visit 
Administration ‘doesn’t fight for the same things we fight for’

Megan Rapinoe has urged her USA teammates to “think hard” about associating themselves with Donald Trump. The 33-year-old found herself embroiled in a row with Trump after footage shot earlier this year emerged showing her saying: “I’m not going to the fucking White House,” when she was asked whether she would visit should her team win the World Cup.

Rapinoe, who is gay, has previously attacked Trump, claiming he is sexist and misogynistic, and described herself as “a walking protest”. She became one of the first athletes to join the then NFL player Colin Kaepernick’s protest against alleged police brutality by kneeling during the American national anthem.

After team regulations were changed Rapinoe now protests by refusing to sing the national anthem but her White House comments thrust her into the spotlight of the president, who accused her on Twitter of disrespect.

“Considering how much time and effort and pride we take in the platform we have, using it for good and leaving the game in a better place and hopefully the world in a better place, I don’t think I would want to go.

“I would encourage my teammates to think hard about lending that platform or having that co-opted by an administration that doesn’t feel the same way and doesn’t fight for the same things we fight for.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jun/27/megan-rapinoe-donald-trump-white-house

The uber conservative media machine is already in overdrive about the ascendancy of the soon to be Queens District Attorney.  I am posting the following editorial in full. As the old saying goes, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

New York Post 6.26.2019

The borough’s future is at stake: Its non-lefty majority needs to unite, and fast.

The likely victory of a progressive young candidate in Queens, NY – an area with a population larger than 15 American States, –  reflects the major upheavel in American criminal justice.  Chesa Boudin in San Francisco is running on a similiar platform of a thorough recalibration of the criminal law environment. It also puts on full display the wide spread opposition and dismay toward the current regime in Washington, DC

Excerpted from Vox 6.26.2019

Tiffany Cabán seems poised to win in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in the Queens district attorney race — potentially giving a big victory to criminal justice reformers who want to end the war on drugs and mass incarceration.

The Queens race may seem like a small local news story. But it’s not — Queens has more people than 15 states and Washington, DC, so the race is a huge deal to a lot of people. And this is the kind of story that really matters for criminal justice reform, because district attorneys and other prosecutors hold tremendous power over the systems that oversee all incarceration in the US.

The race was too close to call as of early Wednesday afternoon. But Cabán declared victory late Tuesday night, telling the crowd at her watch party, “We did it, y’all.” New York Working Families Party Director Bill Lipton described the likely victory in sweeping terms: “Queens is turned upside down. Giants fall and empires crumble.”

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Cabán, a 31-year-old public defender, led Melinda Katz, Queens borough president, by nearly 1,100 votes, or around 1.3 percentage points, in a field of six candidates (although seven remain on the ballot). About 3,400 absentee ballots remain to be counted. The final results may not be known until July 3, according to the New York Times.

A victory in the primary is expected to be a win in the overall district attorney race in Democrat-heavy Queens, which will be decided in November.

Cabán ran on a very progressive platform, focused on racial justice and criminal justice reform. She promised to end cash bail; decriminalize drugs, sex work, subway turnstile jumping, and other crimes of poverty; and set up an internal unit to review wrongful convictions. When I spoke to Cabán in May, she also talked about taking violent crimes seriously — speaking to the duality that minority communities face in that they often feel law enforcement simultaneously over-polices them for minor crimes but under-polices them for serious ones.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/26/18759289/tiffany-caban-queens-new-york-district-attorney-prosecutor

We were in Berlin last October 2, the day of the planned terrorist attack.  October 3 is Reunification Day in Germany.

The gang of neo Nazis were arrested on October 1, 2018 and are now being formally charged with Terrorism offenses.

Deutsche Welle 6.26.2019

A right wing terror group was allegedly planning a civil war-like rebellion in Berlin before they were stopped by police. Chemnitz has emerged as a center of extreme-right groups.

Photo by Lee Heidhues – Brandenburg Gate Berlin 10.3.2018

German prosecutors charged a right-wing group with terrorism offenses, officials confirmed on Tuesday.

Members of Revolution Chemnitz were alleged to have the formed the group in September with the intention of planning and carrying out terror attacks.

The charges were initially revealed by a collaboration between public broadcasters NDR, WDR and newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and later confirmed by the federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe.

Members of the group had allegedly planned to orchestrate a civil-war-like rebellion in Berlin on October 2, 2018. Prosecutors based their charges partly on the use of chat logs found on the defendants’ mobile phones.

Eight alleged members are being held in pre-trial custody and known to police as leaders in the right-wing extremist scene in the eastern city of Chemnitz, which was the scene of anti-immigrant protests last year.

The trial is expected to begin in the fall before the Higher Regional Court of Dresden.

https://www.dw.com/en/revolution-chemnitz-right-wing-group-charged-with-terrorism/a-49352436

Every Picture Tells a Story. Ongoing Series

The Local Germany 6.24.2019

A squirrel in the western German city of Dortmund sparked a major rescue operation after it got stuck in a manhole cover.

The squirrel was discovered with its head poking through the drain cover in the city’s Hainalle on Thursday morning. Emergency services were alerted around 10.30am.

Firefighters presumed that the rodent had tried to escape from the sewer system through the manhole cover – but had unfortunately got into a sticky situation during the process.

Rescue teams didn’t manage to free the squirrel so they took the manhole cover – with the animal stuck inside – to a nearby vet.

https://www.thelocal.de/20190621/squirrel-stuck-in-manhole-cover-rescued-by-german-firefighters

The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal 6.24.2019

FINAL: USA 2-1 Spain

Rapinoe said her hope for that game is that it will be “just an absolute, like, media circus,” she said, grinning. “I hope it’s huge and crazy. That’s what it should be. This is the best game. This is what everybody wanted.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2019/jun/24/usa-spain-womens-world-cup-last-16-live-score

Watching the match on the Spanish language station I could not follow the commentary. Visuals made it clear the atmosphere on the pitch was very hostile.   Cameroon was deprived of a goal for the most technical of reasons. It had nothing to do with the Referee on the field. It was the work of the controversial VAR system which most infuriated the Cameroon team and led to the breakdown of decorum into anarchy on the pitch.

The Guardian 6.23.2019

Deutsche Welle 6.23.2019

 ‘I’ve never seen circumstances like that on a football pitch’
Brit Coach  Neville confirms that player Toni Duggan was deliberately spat on

On an evening when Phil Neville accused Cameroon’s coach of allowing his team to “shame football”, England’s progress to the last eight and a quarter-final in Le Havre against Norway on Thursday was almost reduced to a footnote.

After Cameroon took advantage of a poor clearance from England goalkeeper Karen Bardsley to begin the second half  Ajara Nchout finished clinically.

But Cameroon’s abortive first goal was ruled out after the video assistant’s calibrated lines identified a fractionally offside position in the build-up. The decision was, theoretically speaking, correct, but that was of no consolation to Nchout, the 26-year-old bursting into tears in the arms of head coach Alain Djeumfa.

As the Cameroon players and staff gesticulated wildly in the direction of the big screens inside the stadium, play was delayed again. Referee Qin Liang had lost control, and England almost lost their composure.

England emerged with a 3-0 win but plenty of bruises. Steph Houghton, the captain, was said to be in “severe pain” while receiving post-match treatment after a blatant cynical stamp on an ankle from a Cameroon player. Houghton is now a serious doubt for the Norway game but England’s coach, who revealed that there had been “fighting” involving the Cameroonian entourage at the hotel the two teams are sharing in Valenciennes, seemed even more worried about the wider damage.

“I came to this World Cup to be successful but also to play a part in making women’s football globally more visible, to put on a show that highlights how women’s football is improving,” English Coach Neville said. “But I sat through 90 minutes today and felt ashamed. I’m completely and utterly ashamed of the opposition and their behaviour. I’ve never seen circumstances like that on a football pitch and I think that kind of behaviour is pretty sad. Think of all those young girls and boys watching.”

Neville also confirmed that Toni Duggan had been deliberately spat on in the first half. “That’s pretty clear, that’s one of the worst things you can see on a football pitch,” England’s coach said. “I’m very proud of Toni, she just wiped it off and played on. I’m so proud of my players’ behaviour.

“I’ve got to tell the truth and say that I’ve never seen behaviour as bad as Cameroon’s on a football pitch before. It was like being a kid when you lost and you went home, crying, with the ball. I didn’t enjoy the 90 minutes, I just felt sad. I can’t gloss over it and fudge it, I have to tell the truth.”

He had little sympathy for Djeumfa and his risible claim that the referee had wanted England to win. “Arsène Wenger told me teams mirror their managers,” Neville said. “England players would never behave like that but if they did, they would never, ever play for England again. I would say to Cameroon get your ship in order first before you start throwing stones.”

In the second half the Lionesses should have had a penalty and Cameroon a couple of players sent off but the referee, diplomatically, refrained from making those decisions due to genuine fears the match would descend into total anarchy. By the end she genuinely seemed to fear for her physical safety.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/jun/23/england-phil-neville-accuses-cameroon-shaming-football

https://www.dw.com/en/it-didnt-feel-like-football-england-beat-cameroon-in-farcical-circumstances/a-49325552

Berlin:  Now this is real Rent Control.

The Local Germany 6.22.2019

https://www.thelocal.de/20190618/berlin-poised-to-freeze-rents-for-five-years-amid-rocketing-costs