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BART takeover robbery: 40 to 60 teens swarm train, rob weekend riders
http://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/BART-takeover-robbery-50-to-60-teens-swarm-11094745.php
A recent string of robberies on BART trains took a frightening turn when dozens of juveniles swarmed an Oakland station over the weekend and commandeered a train car, forcing passengers to hand over bags and cell phones and leaving at least two with head injuries, witnesses told the transit agency.
The incident — the first of its kind in recent memory — occurred around 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Coliseum Station.
Teens Commandeer BART Train In Violent Takeover Robbery Of Passengers
(CBS SF) — Passengers on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train were robbed, and in some cases beaten, when dozens of juveniles stormed aboard the train and forced them to give up their property, police said.
The incident happened at 9:30 p.m. Saturday at the Coliseum Station in Oakland aboard a Dublin/Pleasanton-bound train.
ALSO READ: UC Berkeley GOP Group Files Suit Over Rescheduled Ann Coulter Speech
BART Police said witnesses reported 50 to 60 juveniles jumping the fare gates and going to the platform. After boarding the train the They boarded the train they “committed multiple strongarm robberies of bags and cell phones,” according to a police report.
At least two people were hurt and were treated by paramedics for facial and head injuries.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/04/24/teens-commandeer-bart-train-in-violent-takeover-robbery-of-passengers-at-coliseum-station/
Free lance socialists at work, they decided to cut out the government worker middle men.
Shock Tactics: UKIP Backs ‘Superior’ British Values over ‘Regressive Islam’ (breitbart, Apr 24, 2017)
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/04/24/shock-tactics-ukip-backs-superior-british-values-regressive-islam/
“UKIP have been accused of “full-throated Islamophobia” after ratcheting up their rhetoric on multiculturalism and Islam, praising “superior” British values and describing Islam as “regressive”.
“UKIP recognises that the biggest issues of our time are cultural,” declared the party’s deputy leader, Peter Whittle, at the launch of UKIP’s “integration agenda” on Monday.
“Nobody voted for multiculturalism,” he also said, insisting the doctrine had “failed” and that “UKIP is at its best when it is radical”…”
More murder and violence in Germany (DW, Apr 24, 2017)
http://www.dw.com/en/more-murder-and-violence-in-germany/a-38567642
“Germany’s new crime statistics have shown a rise in violent crime, but fewer thefts and break-ins. During a Berlin press conference, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere was careful not to blame immigrants…
Crime among asylum-seekers
Nevertheless, one statistic stuck out in the report – while police had registered only 114,000 criminal incidents among asylum-seekers and refugees in 2015 – there were 174,000 in 2016. “Among the violent crimes, there were 1 percent more Germans, but 90 percent more migrant suspects,” de Maiziere said – before adding that many of these crimes took place among the asylum-seekers themselves inside shelters…”
Disappointed refugees driven to prostitution (DW, Apr 24, 2017)
http://www.dw.com/en/disappointed-refugees-driven-to-prostitution/a-38566276
“German NGOs have claimed that a growing number of migrants are having sex with older men for money. InfoMigrants spoke with these NGOs to learn more about this tragic phenomenon…”
Ankara prosecutors launch probe into ex-French diplomat for ‘inciting’ Erdo?an’s assassination: Spokesperson (hurriyetdailynews, Apr 24, 2017)
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ankara-prosecutors-launch-probe-into-ex-french-diplomat-for-inciting-erdogans-assassination-spokesperson-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=112393&NewsCatID=338
“The Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office has launched a probe into a former French diplomat on charges of “instigation of the assassination of the president,” a presidential spokesperson said on April 24.
?brahim Kal?n told a press meeting that a statement by Philippe Moreau Defarges was not an insult or a criticism but a call for an assassination…”
This is ratcheting up the tension to a much higher level, I wonder if any member of the French media have the guts to make this fact known?
IDF Soldier Stabbed at Jerusalem Area Checkpoint, Female Assailant Detained
A female soldier was stabbed at the Qalandiya checkpoint Monday morning, north of Jerusalem.
The female assailant was neutralized at the scene, while the soldier—an NCO in the Civil Administration—was lightly wounded in the upper body.
The woman who carried out the stabbing attack was identified as Asya Kabaneh, 41, from the village of Duma in the Nablus area.
Asya, who is a married mother of 9, said during investigation that for a long time she has been in conflict with her husband, who threatened to deport her to her family in Jordan.
The investigation also revealed that she had fought with her husband last night over the education of their children and as a result, she decided to carry out an attack in order for the security forces to shoot her because—in her words—she was fed up with her life.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4952924,00.html
Torture of detainees persist in Afghanistan, says UN (khaama, Apr 24, 2017)
http://www.khaama.com/torture-of-detainees-persist-in-afghanistan-says-un-02640
“The United Nations in its latest report has expressed concerns regarding the persisting torture of detainees in the Afghan prisons.
“The continuing torture and ill-treatment of detainees is a matter of serious concern, but we acknowledge the genuine commitment and the efforts of the Government to deal with this issue,” said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan.
The report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) is based on interviews with 469 conflict-related detainees conducted from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2016 in 62 detention facilities administered by the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghan National Police (ANP) and other Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) across the country.
According to the report, more than a third of the interviewees gave credible accounts of being subjected to torture or ill-treatment.
Among other findings, 45 per cent of those interviewed who had been detained by police said they had been tortured or ill-treated – the highest level documented since UNAMA began its current monitoring programme in 2010, the report stated.
The report notes that 26 per cent of those interviewed by UNAMA who had been held in NDS custody reported being subjected to torture or ill-treatment. Of 85 child detainees interviewed, 38 gave credible accounts of being subjected to torture or ill-treatment while in the custody of the Afghan security forces.
Overall, the majority of detainees said they had been tortured to force them to confess and that the torture and ill-treatment stopped once they did so. “Many of those interviewed stated that they did not understand or could not read what was written on the ‘confession’ which they signed or thumb-printed,” the report notes.”
OT- sorta, and old, Apr 9 – but it’s just so weird:
Politico: Chabad Is Nexus Of Putin-Trump Conspiracy
On Sunday, Politico published an article casting Chabad (a Jewish organization dedicated to increasing religious observance among global Jewry) as an interlocutor of political power connecting President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Against a backdrop in which 2016’s presidential election is suggested to have been compromised by “interference” from the Russian government at the direction of Putin (with possible “collusion” from Trump and his political teams), Politico portrays Chabad as another brick of intrigue in its narrative wall.
“Some of the shortest routes between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin run straight through [Chabad],” alleges Politico.
http://www.dailywire.com/news/15254/politico-chabad-nexus-putin-trump-conspiracy-robert-kraychik
Germany: Crimes by ‘refugees’ and right-wingers rose in 2016 – de Maiziere
Germany’s latest crime statistics suggest an increase in violent crimes traced back to “migrants”, as well as a 14.3 percent increase in right wing-motivated crimes in 2016, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere revealed in a press conference in Berlin on Monday.
Citing the newly released 2016 statistics to journalists at a Federal Press Conference session, de Maiziere said that “crimes done by migrants in the last year disproportionately increased,” but warned that “it is too easy to say the analysis of the coarsening of our society is only a consequence of the international refugee crisis.”
SOT, Thomas de Maiziere, German Interior Minister (German): “It is unpleasant, that the migrants – you can find the definition in the report as “mostly refugees” – that the crimes done by migrants in the last year disproportionately increased. There is nothing to whitewash this.”
SOT, Thomas de Maiziere, German Interior Minister (German): “Unfortunately – that’s what the numbers show – the clear increase within the violent crimes trace back to the increase of violent crimes done by migrants.”
SOT, Thomas de Maiziere, German Interior Minister (German): “It is mostly a few refugees from certain countries that often commit many crimes and therefore bring other, innocent refugees in disrepute.”
SOT, Thomas de Maiziere, German Interior Minister (German): “It is too easy to say the analysis of the coarsening of our society is only a consequence of the international refugee crisis. It has something to do with the mentality behaviour within our country in general.”
SOT, Thomas de Maiziere, German Interior Minister (German): “The number of politically-motivated crimes in 2016 has reached again for the fourth time its peak.”
SOT, Thomas de Maiziere, German Interior Minister (German): “Right-motivated violence has increased distinctly by 14.3 percent, too. These numbers are almost on the same high level as leftists’ violent crimes, which have decreased in the last year.”
Venezuelan anti-Maduro protesters block roadways
Venezuela: Police fires tear gas to break up opposition protest
Maduro Jugando Beisbol Mientras Venezuela protesta en todo el pais.
There was a terrible attack – of fascism and intolerance – but we’re playing to win! To win for Venezuela!
This is very good.
CRISIS & CHAOS IN VENEZUELA – Total Economic Collapse In Full Force
Venezuela: Trucks burn as anti-govt. protests enter fourth week
Venezuela Only Has $10 Billion Left in Reserves
Amid all of Venezuela’s problems, the country is running out of time and money.
Venezuela only has $10 billion in reserves — the cash that’s intended to keep an economy stable and weather tough times.
What’s worse: most of those reserves aren’t in hard cash. About $7 billion is in gold bars, which doesn’t make it easy to make payments.
And Venezuela has a lot of bills to pay soon. It owes $6 billion in debt payments for the rest of this year. There’s also no sign that the country’s lone source of revenue — oil exports — will be able to pay down those debts.
At the end of the day, Venezuela is running the risk of defaulting on its debt this year, meaning it wouldn’t be able to get more loans to pay for basics like food and medicine, which are in scarce supply.
In 2011, Venezuela had $30 billion in the bank. As recently as 2015, it had $20 billion.
The worsening financial picture underscores Venezuela’s problems. Violent, anti-government protests killed three people Wednesday, and more protests are scheduled for the weekend. Armed forces met protesters with tear gas and shots.
Also on Wednesday, General Motors said Venezuelan authorities seized its assembly plant. Authorities later denied it was seized, saying it’s embargoed until a long-running court case is resolved, but that distinction didn’t matter to GM: it shut down operations due to the government intervention.
The IMF predicted on Tuesday that inflation in Venezuela would skyrocket 720% while unemployment would shoot up over 25%. This year will likely mark the fourth straight year of recession — entirely under socialist president Nicolas Maduro, who blames the U.S. and political opponents for the country’s problems.
But many are questioning the priorities of the government. Filings showed Venezuela — unable to pay for imports of food for its millions of starving citizens — donated $500,000 to President Trump’s inauguration committee.
To make debt payments last year, the Venezuelan government started shipping some of its gold to Switzerland to either serve as collateral for a loan or a cash-for-gold exchange.
So far, Venezuela has paid its creditors instead of paying for basic imports of food and medicine for its struggling citizens.
http://fox40.com/2017/04/21/venezuela-only-has-10-billion-left-in-reserves/
Remeber Indonesian candidate for governor of Jackarta Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, the one who was accused of blasphemy? The guy who was Christian and of Chinese origin? He lost the elections.
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Forgetting pluralism in heat of polls
In conceding defeat in an ugly election, Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama urged his followers to “forget all the things that happened during the campaign”. There were unrelenting street demonstrations organised by hardline Islamic groups and defiance of police orders near the presidential palace. Politicians blatantly used religion as a political tool and a blasphemy trial still hangs over Basuki. The campaign was described by The Jakarta Post as “the dirtiest, most polarising and most divisive the nation has ever seen”.
Basuki was being responsible when he called for calm last week and pledged to work closely during the interim with the presumed victor, Mr Anies Baswedan, a former minister and Muslim scholar. But the battle for the governorship, seen as a proxy for the 2019 presidential election, revealed how religion can be exploited to great effect. That’s a trend that none should gloss over and forget. Given the results, more zealots might play the religious card to win votes when they are lagging at the polls. The swing witnessed in Jakarta was stark: Basuki once held a double-digit lead in opinion polls and, just this month, a survey showed 76 per cent of voters liked his work as governor. But being twice a minority – he’s both Christian and Chinese – proved to be his downfall when the chips fell.
Such an outcome portends ill, all the more because Indonesia officially supports pluralism. At its independence, those who favoured secularism prevailed over others who wanted to set up a religious state governed by Islamic law. Since then, the nation’s approach to religious tolerance had been widely held up as “a blueprint” for multicultural societies. But the old struggle was never really over. Since the government allowed Aceh province to establish Islamic law, hundreds of syariah-based ordinances have emerged over time at the local level elsewhere. “Aceh, once an outlier, has become a model” for other spots with similar impulses, as one observer noted. In Jakarta last week, Muslim hardliners exulted, with clenched fists held aloft, for having asserted their will convincingly there……
http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/st-editorial/forgetting-pluralism-in-heat-of-polls
Appel clair» du Crif à voter Macron
Le Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France (Crif) a lancé dimanche soir un «appel clair à voter pour Emmanuel Macron» face à Marine Le Pen au second tour de l’élection présidentielle.
«Au-delà de la satisfaction de voir un candidat défendant les valeurs démocratiques et républicaines en tête», le Crif constate «avec inquiétude», dans un communiqué, que «les candidats des extrêmes représentent plus de 40% des suffrages exprimés».
La vitrine politique de la première communauté juive d’Europe, forte d’un demi-million de membres, «appelle à une mobilisation la plus large qui soit pour faire barrage au Front national».
«Dans la configuration du deuxième tour, Le Crif lance un appel clair à voter pour Emmanuel Macron», conclut l’organisation, qui avait appelé avant le premier tour à faire barrage aux «extrêmes», de Marine Le Pen à Nathalie Arthaud et Philippe Poutou, en passant par Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
http://www.liberation.fr/france/2017/04/24/appel-clair-du-crif-a-voter-macron_1564884
(CRIF, political umbrella organization officially representing all Jewish communities and organizations asked Jewish voters to vote for Macron)
It’s no good.
Assimilated lefty Jew-ish orgs don’t represent the observant, visible Jews who are at risk. These “community leaders” are as culpable as their counterparts in Germany and Hungary who refused to flee the jaws of death when they felt its hot breath.
‘Terror suspects planned attack on Tarek Fatah’
Faizan and Ahtesham were produced before the court on Friday and ATS procured their custody remand from the court on Saturday.
THE FOUR terror suspects recently arrested by the UP ATS planned to attack Pakistan-born Canadian writer Tarek Fatah when he would have visited India. The revelation was allegedly made during interrogation of suspects Faizan and Ahtesham, who are on eight-day police custody remand.
The ATS, in a joint operation with counterparts in five states, had arrested Nazim Shamshad alias Umar, Zeeshan alias Ghazi Baba alias Muzammil, Faizan alias Mufti and Ahtesham from Mumbai, Punjab, Bijnor in UP and Bihar, respectively.
Faizan and Ahtesham were produced before the court on Friday and ATS procured their custody remand from the court on Saturday. Umar, the alleged group leader, and Zeeshan were produced before a local court in Lucknow on Monday, which sent them to judicial custody, said ATS IG Asim Kumar Arun. ATS will move court on Tuesday seeking police custody remand of other accused, he added.
“We have shared information collected during interrogation with central agencies. The accused have revealed they planned to attack Tarek Fatah. They also wanted to kill any police officer in Mumbai Police,” an ATS officer said.
“During interrogation, Faizan said he was in touch with a youth in Mumbai for the purchase of explosives and weapons after their contact in Bijnor, who was paid advance for the explosives, failed to deliver the consignment…We have sent details of Faizan’s contact to the Mumbai Police,” the officer added.
Further, Faizan and Ahtesham had said during interrogation that they planned to target a crowded market or a fair in Haridwar, Shia Eidgah at Naugawan Sadat in Amroha, torch a sugar mill at Narkatiaganj in Bihar and also target cylinder or battery shops in any market, said the officer.
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/terror-suspects-planned-attack-on-tarek-fatah-4626862/
Nigel Farage on French election: Don’t write off Le Pen
Channel 4 – French election explained: Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen go head to head
( 22 min 10 )
Présidentielle 2eme tour : L’attaque de Marine Le Pen contre Emmanuel Macron
the rebel – EU elites out to crush Le Pen
the rebel – Eric Duhaime: France’s media bias hides Le Pen momentum
BBC – French election: In search of ‘la France profonde’
Much of the attention of the French presidential election has been on Paris and other large metropolitan areas, where the issues of terrorism and immigration have been felt most keenly. But it’s outside the capital that the election is really decided. Gabriel Gatehouse has gone in search of France’s political and geographic heart.
9 Things You Need To Know About The Coming North Korean Nuclear Crisis
At 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, the U.S. military conducted the world’s first-ever nuclear bomb test, detonating a plutonium device in the remote deserts of New Mexico. That moment changed the course of human history, bringing the awesome power of global annihilation to the fingertips of man. Since then, the specter of a nuclear apocalypse has loomed over the world, striking fear in the hearts of every living soul, from Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Moscow and Washington, D.C.
With tensions high in the Western Pacific, many fear that America’s increasingly hard-line stance with Kim Jong-Un’s tyrannical regime may trigger a nuclear showdown, pitting the world’s sole superpower against the hermit kingdom run by a deranged despot.
For the most part, the Obama administration attempted to quell Pyongyang’s hostile rhetoric and routine nuclear bomb testing with diplomacy. That approach did little, if anything, to slow down North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
Abandoning the Obama doctrine of passivity, President Trump has signaled that he may resort to military solutions if North Korea continues to provoke the United States
http://www.dailywire.com/news/15599/9-things-you-need-know-about-coming-north-korean-joshua-yasmeh
Hungary: Protesters rail at Russia’s supposed influence on Orban outside embassy
Hundreds marched on the Russian embassy in Budapest, Monday, rallying against Hungarian President Victor Orban’s government, and supposed Russian influence in Hungary.
SOT, protester (Hungarian): “Hungary belongs to Europe. And we won’t change it. We don’t want Russian-style authoritarian repression, we will not be a playground of dictators. Hungary belongs to the west, not Eurasia.”
’50 times more brutal’: Duterte promises death for ISIS militants after bomb plot foiled
The Philippines’ president, Rodrigo Duterte warned Islamist extremists he could be ’50 times’ more brutal than those beheading people and go as far as to eat the terrorists’ internal organs.
He was referring to the recently foiled terrorist plot which three Islamic State affiliates were preparing. Several soldiers and civilians, and at least four militants, including a senior commander of an Islamist extremist group were killed in the Tuesday operation in the central province of Bohol, a popular tourist destination, before they could carry out a kidnapping and bombing plot.
VICE News – Exclusive Interview with Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
The Hidden Laborers Training AI to Keep Ads Off Hateful YouTube Videos
https://www.wired.com/2017/04/zerochaos-google-ads-quality-raters/
(‘teaser’ excerpts follow, read the entire article; what’s to stop Google, once this machine is up and running, from hiring it out to serve CAIR or Erdogan or Putin or the Trial Lawyers’ Guild; or to sell it outright, or to lose it in a poker game to Saudi Arabia? Furthermore, this is the entering wedge of giving AI the ability to steer people in wholesale lots in one direction or the other.)
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EVERY DAY ACROSS the nation, people doing work for Google log in to their computers and start watching YouTube. They look for violence in videos. They seek out hateful language in video titles. They decide whether to classify clips as “offensive” or “sensitive.” They are Google’s so-called “ads quality raters,” temporary workers hired by outside agencies to render judgments machines still can’t make all on their own. And right now, Google appears to need these humans’ help—urgently.
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But users upload nearly 600,000 hours of new video to YouTube daily; it would take a small city of humans working around the clock to watch it all. That’s why the tech giant has emphasized that it’s hard at work developing artificially intelligent content filters, software that can flag offensive videos at a greater clip than ever before. “The problem cannot be solved by humans and it shouldn’t be solved by humans,” Schindler recently told Bloomberg.
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In March, however, in the wake of advertiser boycotts, Google asked raters to set that other work aside in favor of a “high-priority rating project” that would consume their workloads “for the foreseeable future,” according to an email the company sent them. This new project meant focusing almost exclusively on YouTube—checking the content of videos or entire channels against a list of things that advertisers find objectionable. “It’s been a huge change,” says one ad rater.
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Ad raters don’t just flag videos as inappropriate. They are asked to make granular assessments of their title and contents—classifying them, for instance, as containing “Inappropriate Language,” such as “profanity,” “hate speech,” or “other.” Or “Violence,” with the subcategories “terrorism,” “war and conflict,” “death and tragedy,” or “other.” There’s also “Drugs” and “Sex/Nudity” (with the subcategories “abusive,” “nudity,” or “other”). The system also provides the ad rater with an option for “other sensitive content”—if, say, someone is sharing extreme political views.
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Most of the ad raters who spoke to WIRED were hired through ZeroChaos—just one of several agencies that provide temporary workers to tech companies.
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“The people at the other end of this pipeline in Mountain View are like the wizard behind the curtain,” another former rater said. “We would like very much to communicate with them, be real colleagues, but no.”
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The $15-per-hour rate is still above most cities’ minimum wages. One ad rater told me he was grateful for the opportunity ZeroChaos gave him. “[ZeroChaos] didn’t care about a criminal background when even McDonald’s turned me down,” the rater said. Multiple raters said they’d been close to homelessness or needing to go on food stamps when this job came along.
AFGHANISTAN – Scholars Slam Taliban Attack on Army Against Islamic Values
Bomb attack hits U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan
Suspected Taliban insurgents on Monday attacked a U.S.-operated base in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Khost, officials said, but gave few immediate details of an assault that coincided with a visit to Kabul by U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis.
The attackers had detonated a car bomb at an entrance to Camp Chapman, a secretive facility manned by U.S. forces and private military contractors, said Mubarez Mohammad Zadran, a spokesman for the provincial governor.
But he had little immediate information on any damage or casualties.
“I am aware of a car bomb attack at one of the gates in the U.S. base, but we are not allowed there to get more details,” the spokesman said.
A spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Capt. William Salvin, confirmed the car bomb attack. He said there appeared to be a number of Afghan casualties but none among U.S. or coalition personnel at the base.
The attack came just three days after more than 140 Afghan soldiers were killed in an attack on their base by Taliban fighters disguised in military uniforms.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-blast-idUSKBN17Q12C
SEAN HANNITY Issues Warning to Liberals Fascists Who Slander Him – We’re Laying out Legal Action