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Report: Antisemitic incidents on the rise in California

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Report: Antisemitic incidents on the rise in California


Greater than 500 antisemitic acts focusing on Jewish folks, together with assault, vandalism and harassment, had been dedicated in California final yr, a rise of greater than 40% from 2021, underscoring a proliferation of hate crimes and extremism within the state, in keeping with a report launched Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League.

The ADL additionally cited rising collaboration amongst extremist and white supremacist teams in a report detailing a variety of hate crimes and violence. California noticed a minimum of six murders by members of extremist teams in 2021 and 2022 — essentially the most within the nation — with three being linked to white supremacist teams, the report discovered.

The report on California comes after the Anti-Defamation League launched one other report, in collaboration with Tel Aviv College’s Heart for the Research of Modern European Jewry, that reveals antisemitic incidents are at a brand new excessive worldwide, with the upward pattern intensifying within the U.S.

In California, it discovered a minimum of 518 antisemitic acts had been dedicated in 2022, second solely to New York with 580 incidents. That determine is a 41% enhance from 2021, it mentioned.

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“There is a frequent thread that connects each a part of California, north and south, east and west, and that is hate in all its varieties,” Oren Segal, vp of the Anti-Defamation League Heart of Extremism, mentioned at a information convention Tuesday. “Addressing the proliferation of extremism, antisemitism and hate will not be solely a profound problem, it is without doubt one of the challenges of our time.”

The civil rights group’s report, referred to as “Hate within the Golden State”, additionally discovered a rise in native white supremacist teams working collectively to unfold propaganda and strengthen their presence throughout California. It reveals how established teams such because the Proud Boys proceed to focus on native LGBTQ+ occasions, particularly drag queen story hours.

Supremacist or antisemitic teams such because the Goyim Protection League, Lively Golf equipment and the White Lives Matter community are among the many driving forces behind efforts in California to unfold white supremacy ideology and set up anti-LGBTQ+ protests, the report mentioned. Final yr, the Anti-Defamation League recorded 296 situations of white supremacist propaganda being distributed in California, a bounce of 91% from 155 situations in 2021.

It additionally particulars violence or harassment dedicated by supporters of QAnon, a baseless conspiracy idea that believed former President Donald Trump was waging a secret marketing campaign in opposition to enemies within the “deep state” in addition to a baby intercourse trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals. It discovered supporters of the group had been answerable for a minimum of three violent assaults in 2021 and 2022, together with the assault of Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-U.S. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in San Francisco final yr.

Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, a homosexual Jewish lawmaker from San Francisco, referred to as the report’s findings “completely horrifying.” Wiener mentioned he has been the goal of hate speech and demise threats.

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“We need not see statistics to know that there was an explosion of hate and extremism,” Wiener mentioned on the information convention. “We’d like, as a matter of public security and public well being in California, to be very clear that we’re going to have a zero-tolerance coverage for this sort of extremist bigoted conduct.”

The Anti-Defamation League says it has recorded a minimum of 400 incidents the place native lawmakers throughout the nation had been harassed or threatened between 2020 and 2022, with 64 situations in California.

California lawmakers and officers are trying to deal with the pattern. Final week, the Civil Rights Division unveiled a statewide non-emergency hate crime hotline. The hotline, serving as an alternative choice to regulation enforcement, helps join individuals who expertise or witness hate crimes with numerous sources, together with authorized and psychological well being help.

Democratic Assemblymember Cory Jackson of Riverside, who authored a invoice that may create a hate crime intervention unit throughout the California Division of Public Well being, mentioned the extremism motion is gaining traction.

“This motion is nicely organized, is nicely funded, they usually have a sport plan, and they’re executing that sport plan,” he mentioned. “That is our alternative to creating certain that we do not take this flippantly.”

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San Francisco, CA

Cruise reaches settlement with woman severely injured by robotaxi in San Francisco, report says

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Cruise reaches settlement with woman severely injured by robotaxi in San Francisco, report says


SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Cruise reached a settlement with a woman who was severely injured by one of the company’s robotaxis, according to a new report.

The exact terms of the agreement have not been revealed.

The woman was hit by a regular vehicle back October.

The impact threw her into the path of a driverless car at 5th and Market Streets in San Francisco.

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GM’s Cruise recalling all 950 robotaxis after SF pedestrian dragging incident

She was then pinned under the car as it attempted to pull over.

Cruise said the incident was caused by a software malfunction.

The incident led the DMV to suspend Cruise’s driverless taxi license in San Francisco.

Copyright © 2024 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.

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Britain expands AI safety institute to San Francisco amid scrutiny over regulatory shortcomings

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Britain expands AI safety institute to San Francisco amid scrutiny over regulatory shortcomings


An aerial view of the city of San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge in California, October 28, 2021.

Carlos Barria | Reuters

LONDON — The British government is expanding its facility for testing “frontier” artificial intelligence models to the United States, in a bid to further its image as a top global player tackling the risks of the tech and to increase cooperation with the U.S. as governments around the world jostle for AI leadership.

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The government on Monday announced it would open a U.S. counterpart to its AI safety summit, a state-backed body focused on testing advanced AI systems to ensure they’re safe, in San Francisco this summer.

The U.S. iteration of the AI Safety Institute will aim to recruit a team of technical staff headed up by a research director. In London, the institute currently has a team of 30. It is chaired by Ian Hogarth, a prominent British tech entrepreneur who founded the music concert discovery site Songkick.

In a statement, U.K. Technology Minister Michelle Donelan said the AI Safety Summit’s U.S. rollout “represents British leadership in AI in action.”

“It is a pivotal moment in the U.K.’s ability to study both the risks and potential of AI from a global lens, strengthening our partnership with the U.S. and paving the way for other countries to tap into our expertise as we continue to lead the world on AI safety.”

The expansion “will allow the U.K. to tap into the wealth of tech talent available in the Bay Area, engage with the world’s largest AI labs headquartered in both London and San Francisco, and cement relationships with the United States to advance AI safety for the public interest,” the government said.

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San Francisco is the home of OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed company behind viral AI chatbot ChatGPT.

The AI Safety Institute was established in November 2023 during the AI Safety Summit, a global event held in England’s Bletchley Park, the home of World War II code breakers, that sought to boost cross-border cooperation on AI safety.

The expansion of the AI Safety Institute to the U.S. comes on the eve of the AI Seoul Summit in South Korea, which was first proposed at the U.K. summit in Bletchley Park last year. The Seoul summit will take place across Tuesday and Wednesday.

The government said that, since the AI Safety Institute was established in November, it’s made progress in evaluating frontier AI models from some of the industry’s leading players.

It said Monday that several AI models completed cybersecurity challenges but struggle to complete more advanced challenges, while several models demonstrated PhD-level knowledge of chemistry and biology.

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Meanwhile, all models tested by the institute remained highly vulnerable to “jailbreaks,” where users trick them into producing responses they’re not permitted to under their content guidelines, while some would produce harmful outputs even without attempts to circumvent safeguards.

Tested models were also unable to complete more complex, time-consuming tasks without humans there to oversee them, according to the government.

It didn’t name the AI models that were tested. The government previously got OpenAI, DeepMind, and Anthropic to agree to opening their coveted AI models up to the government to help inform research into the risks associated with their systems.

The development comes as Britain has faced criticism for not introducing formal regulations for AI, while other jurisdictions, like the European Union, race ahead with AI-tailored laws.

The EU’s landmark AI Act, which is the first major legislation for AI of its kind, is expected to become a blueprint for global AI regulations once it is approved by all EU member states and enters into force.

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San Francisco, CA

Game Day: Bay Area golfer making most of 2nd chance

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Game Day: Bay Area golfer making most of 2nd chance


Game Day: Bay Area golfer making most of 2nd chance – CBS San Francisco

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Anthony Lasconia’s baseball career was cut short by a car accident in high school. He decided to try golf and has done more than pickup a new hobby.

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