The following is an excerpt from Jack Posobiec's forthcoming book, The Antifa: Stories from Inside the Black Bloc, chronicling the secret history of the radical anarchist group from their earliest days in Weimar Germany, to the battlefields of Syria, to their rise to prominence within the the United States.

Available June 1st. Pre-order now at https://www.antifabook.com/.

The riots began at the end of May, and by the end of August, nearly every state in the country had been hit. The pandemic lockdowns already had everyone on edge, then a video of a suspect dying in police custody went viral — the spark that lit the fuse. It was the summer of 2020. Riots raged in Minneapolis, from there, spreading to the West Coast and flaring to the East. Cities like Portland and Seattle first saw protests, then mobs of violent activists appeared overnight. In Chicago, New York, St. Louis, and Philadelphia, looters took to the streets, smashing storefronts and stealing their pick of what was inside. Cable networks and smartphone screens alike quickly filled with scenes of violence and carnage across American streets. Statues of America's founders and religious figures were toppled. Lafayette Park outside the White House filled with occupiers who set fire to a historic church.

Amid the mayhem, a singular force emerged: black-clad militants joined in the fray from city to city, urging protesters to go further, to cross the line. In some cases, armed militia wearing patches and flying flags of red and black appeared, chanting that they now controlled the streets. The coronavirus pandemic had forced mask-wearing in many American cities, and so the militants easily weaved in and out of the larger crowds that summer, unrecognizable. Pallets of bricks and construction materials sitting out on city streets became caches of weapons.

By the end of the summer, over 30 people had been killed in the riots. Nearly 700 police officers had been injured nation-wide. The damages were estimated to be in the billions across the country — the highest in American history.

Most people who participated in the summer riots of 2020 did so to support the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, who, for the most part, peacefully exercised their First Amendment right. But another force attempted to infiltrate BLM, one dedicated to overturning the establishment through a violent insurrectionist revolution.

This was the Antifa.

Promoter says he's trying to keep people safe

With new CDC guidelines, concerts are starting to come back to Florida, but for at least one show, the ABC Action News I-Team has learned your COVID-19 vaccination status will determine how much you pay to attend.

"These are all my tickets from over the years," said Brittney Wigen, showing framed displays containing hundreds of ticket stubs.

Wigen has been a fan of punk rock and has attended shows regularly since she was a teenager. The COVID-19 pandemic put all concerts on hold, but Wigen recently saw an announcement for a show to be held at St. Petersburg VFW Post #39 next month headlined by Teenage Bottlerocket and featuring the bands Make War and Rutterkin.

Back in April, I wrote about a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which found that Dutch students made "made little or no progress while learning from home". Now researchers have reported a similar finding in Brazil.

As in the Dutch study, the researchers used rigorous methods to gauge the impact of remote learning on student outcomes. In other words, they didn't just compare outcomes in 2020 to those the year before.

In São Paulo State (where the study was based) state schools switched to remote learning only at the end of the first quarter, and they continued to teach remotely thereafter. This allowed the researchers to compare the change in outcomes between the first and last quarters of 2020 to the change in outcomes between the same two quarters of 2019.

They looked at two different outcomes: high dropout risk (i.e., whether the student had any math and Portuguese grades on his school record in the relevant quarter), and standardised test scores.

When comparing the change in 2020 to the change in 2019, the researchers found large increases in school dropout and learning losses.

Five former detectives have been handed lengthy jail terms in Russia for their roles in fabricating evidence against a reporter in a case that sparked outrage across the country, with President Vladimir Putin wading into the row.

Moscow City Court passed down the judgement on Friday, sentencing Igor Lyakhovets, the former deputy head of the drugs division in the west of the capital, to a 12-year spell in prison. His then-subordinates Akbar Sergaliev, Roman Feofanov and Maxim Umetbaev received eight years each, while a fifth, Denis Konovalov, took a deal to plead guilty and received a five-year term. Each was fined one million rubles ($13,600 USD), stripped of their ranks and given bans from holding public service roles.

The ex-officers arrested Ivan Golunov in June 2019, claiming he had been in possession of the recreational drug mephedrone while he was working as a correspondent for Meduza, a Latvia-based news site registered as a 'foreign agent' by Russia's Ministry of Justice over links to overseas funding.

However, the reporter was released only five days later, after a large-scale public outcry that saw Russian news outlets rally together to protest his innocence. Hundreds even took to the streets to demonstrate against the arrest in Moscow and cities across the country. Several leading newspapers also published identical front pages to show solidarity with the detained journalist.

Interest in silver is soaring (both for industrial use and financial investment), echoing 2013's crisis, as a recent report from the Silver Institute, silver demand for printed and flexible electronics is forecast to increase 54% over the next 10 years.

Demand for silver in this rapidly developing sector is forecast to come in at 48 million ounces this year. By 2030, the demand is expected to surge to 615 million ounces.

Whether it's a 'Marxist' co-founder of Black Lives Matter investing millions in real estate, or an Atlanta politician calling cops when his Mercedes is taken, all the cute slogans go out the window when reality sets in.

The term, "when the rubber hits the road" is used whenever an idea that seems good in theory meets practical application - basically, whenever you try to apply your own perceived genius to everyday life. Sometimes this works wonderfully, at other times the proverbial rubber explodes and everything you thought that was going to work doesn't. Such is the way that the woke ideology goes, because it seems more and more that those who follow these ideas end up either abandoning them or seeing the error of their ways.

Black Lives Matter (BLM) co-founder Patrisse Cullors is a good recent example. Just yesterday, she resigned from her position as the executive director of the BLM foundation. The "trained Marxist" was recently outed as having spent $3.2 million on real estate. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" seems to go out the window pretty quickly once you have a certain number of zeros in your checking account. She blamed those darn right-wingers for making it into news, of course.

The Pennsylvania Parole Board on Thursday denied Bill Cosby's petition to be released from prison on parole.

A letter released by the board Thursday stated that Cosby, 83, failed "to develop a parole release plan" and must participate in and complete additional programs including a "treatment program for sex offenders and violence prevention."

Cosby was sentenced to three years to 10 years in state prison in 2018 after he was convicted of aggravated sexual assault for drugging and molesting Andrea Constand at his home near Philadelphia.

The parole board said that Cosby also received a negative recommendation from the department of corrections.

The board's decision can be reconsidered if Cosby can obtain a positive recommendation, complete the required programs and keep a clean record of conduct.

A representative for Cosby said in a statement that it was "not a surprise" that his parole request was denied.

Facebook was today accused of 'showing its true and ugly colours' and smothering free speech as it scrapped its ban on posts debating whether Covid-19 could be man-made - but only after Joe Biden ordered the CIA to probe if the virus came from a Wuhan lab.

Mark Zuckerberg's global policy chief Nick Clegg, the former British MP and Liberal Democrat leader, has also been branded 'feeble' for allowing months of censorship on the social network.

Critics branded Facebook's behaviour 'contemptible' and begged them to respect free speech rather than 'ingratiating' themselves with states such as China, which has banned the website but remains a $5billion-a-year ad market.

NHS patients' GP records are the most detailed and sensitive medical records that exist, containing the history of events in an individual's lifetime impacting their physical and mental health.

But, from 1 July, NHS Digital has announced that "data may be shared from the GP medical records about... any living patient registered at a GP practice in England when the collection started".

NHS Digital - the health and social care system's information and technology partner - will be able to take the following from GPs' records: "Data about diagnoses, symptoms, observations, test results, medications, allergies, immunisations, referrals, recalls and appointments, including information about physical, mental and sexual health." This will also include data about "staff who have treated patients", and data "on sex, ethnicity and sexual orientation", as well as other sensitive data.

Pope Francis will dispatch a team to investigate if the Archbishop of Cologne mishandled sexual abuse claims in the Catholic Church. Parishioners have been protesting against the diocese and demanding accountability.

Investigators from the Vatican will visit the Archdiocese of Cologne, Germany in the first half of June to check whether its leader, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, had made "mistakes" in the addressing of the sexual abuse cases, the archdiocese said in a statement on Friday. They will also look at possible failings by Stefan Hesse, the archbishop of Hamburg, who was the former head of personnel in Cologne.

Woelki has been slammed by parishioners for not releasing a report detailing abuse allegations and failing to inform the Vatican about a particular case involving a priest. The cardinal himself had requested an investigation last year and had promised to support the probe. He said he welcomed the fact the Pope wanted "to get his own picture" of the affairs in the archdiocese.