However, deep progress on the vast differences separating them may have to wait for another day.

Officials on both sides of the Pacific have set expectations low as Biden and Xi are set to discuss Taiwan, the South China Sea, the Israel-Hamas war, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, North Korea, and human rights – each of them areas where the leaders have been unable to resolve long-standing disagreements.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-xi-meet-us-china-military-economic-tensions-grind-2023-11-15/

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Being billed as the U.S.-PRC Leaders Summit, both will be attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. The two met last November in Bali. APEC will start on Saturday and run through Nov. 17.

“The leaders will discuss issues in the U.S.-PRC bilateral relationship, the continued importance of maintaining open lines of communication, and a range of regional and global issues,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2023/11/10/Biden-Xi-meeting-San-Francisco/9421699625339/

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The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the U.S.-China Business Council are jointly hosting the gala in San Francisco on November 15, during which they said a “senior Chinese leader” would “delivery a major speech.” Bloomberg on Tuesday named Xi as the guest of honor.

China‘s president is traveling to the United States for the first time since 2017 to attend the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The White House has signaled its expectation for talks between Xi and U.S. President Joe Biden, but the Chinese foreign ministry hasn’t confirmed any plans.

“The ‘road to San Francisco’ will not be smooth sailing and cannot rely on ‘automatic driving.’ The two sides must effectively ‘return to Bali’ and truly implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state, eliminate interference, overcome obstacles, enhance consensus and accumulate experience,” ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday, referring to the last Biden-Xi summit in Indonesia almost a year ago.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/american-business-corporate-elites-ceos-2000-dollar-dinner-china-xi-jinping-san-francisco-1841935

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Around the tranquil coastal town of Half Moon Bay, a pair of related shootings at two locations Monday killed seven people and left one person critically injured.

7 dead in Half Moon Bay as California confronts another mass killing

It was California’s second mass killing in three days, after a gunman shot down 11 people at a dance studio in Monterey Park, just outside Los Angeles, on Saturday.

In Oakland, police said one person was killed and seven others injured in a “shooting between several individuals” on Monday night, with homicide investigators taking over the ongoing investigation.

The Oakland incident was listed in the database of 2023 mass shootings by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research organization, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter. Already, the group has counted 39 mass shootings in the United States in just the first month of 2023 — including the latest three in California.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/half-moon-bay-massacre-is-california-s-third-mass-shooting-in-three-days/ar-AA16GoWV

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The quake hit at 11:42 a.m. with a depth of 4 miles, just south of Mount Hamilton in the hills about 12 miles east of downtown San Jose, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. A magnitude 3.1 aftershock struck shortly after at 11:47 a.m. in the same area.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/sf-bay-area-earthquake-shakes-17533662.php

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Key point: Kim Jong-un isn’t suicidal.

The recent revelation that North Korea has intercontinental ballistic missiles put America on notice: within a few short years, or even months, the entire continental United States will be within range of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons. While practical counterforce targets—such as bomber and missile bases—exist, there is also an argument to be made that Kim Jong-un would target major American cities to inflict maximum damage. One of those cities would almost certainly be San Francisco.

San Francisco is often considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The city has a population of 864,816 within an area roughly seven by seven miles wide and is the second-largest population concentration in America after New York City. San Francisco is on a peninsula and is at the center of a larger metropolitan area, the San Francisco Bay Area, with a population of approximately seven million.

In a previous article covering an attack on Tokyo, we assumed a North Korean Pukkuksong-2 missile delivering a 20-kiloton warhead would be used—a more or less realistic estimate for an attack over the next twelve months. Given that the Hwasong-15 ICBM is not likely capable of delivering a warhead on San Francisco for up to two years, we’ll assume that North Korea has a few more years to miniaturize a more powerful device. For this scenario, we’ll assume the Hwasong-15 can deliver a 250-kiloton device, as powerful as the 2017 underground test.

Using the NUKEMAP, a web site designed to simulate the effects of nuclear weapons, we can estimate that a 250-kiloton warhead detonated over San Francisco could kill between 88,000 and 321,000 people in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. Such an attack would further injure another 182,000 to 206,000 and expose millions to radioactive contamination.

On the low end, an attack on the western half of San Francisco could kill as many as 89,050 and injure 178,130. This number is relatively low because much of the weapon effects would spread out over the Pacific Ocean. The western half of San Francisco also largely consists of single-family homes and smaller apartment buildings, reducing the overall population density.

On the high end, an attack on downtown San Francisco could kill 269,560 and injure 200,440. Most homes in this area are multi-unit apartment complexes, increasing population density. One issue that could send casualty estimates skyrocketing: during the day, the population of San Francisco swells by 265,000, as people commute into the city for work. These numbers are overwhelmingly concentrated in the downtown and South of Market areas, making a daytime attack particularly lethal.

An attack against the geographic center of the city, somewhere around the Twin Peaks neighborhood, would kill 154,810 and injure 326,340. If North Korea were interested in attacking monuments and not population centers, an attack against the Golden Gate Bridge would probably annihilate the bridge but cause relatively few casualties—the park land and bay surrounding the iconic bridge means few people actually live nearby. As a result, NUKEMAP predicts just 8,000 killed and 143,150 injured.

San Francisco’s geography may mitigate—or enhance—the effects of nuclear weapons. The city’s western half is flat, a legacy of the sand dunes that were paved over to building single-family housing, allowing heat and blast waves to roll impeded across entire neighborhoods. The city is also relatively flat from downtown and the Financial District to the Mission District area. However, several large hills straddle the rough geographic center of the city, conceivably isolating some blast and thermal radiation effects. A similar geographical setup spared parts of Nagasaki in 1945.

Another factor to consider is the spread of radioactive fallout. Offshore winds will carry radioactive particles inland, in a northeasterly direction. This will spread the effects of the bomb beyond the city into the suburbs, causing radiation sickness and long-term health issues. Dangerous levels of fallout will carry as far north as Sacramento, the state capitol.

In many cases, the fact that San Francisco is located on a peninsula reduces casualty rates. However, in a postattack situation, the location will work against the city. The northern half of the city is directly connected to the rest of the Bay Area by just traffic sixteen lanes on two bridges. This, combined with civilian traffic, will make it difficult to flow emergency services into the city and to evacuate the wounded out. Although the military has trained to land hovercraft on nearby beaches in disaster situations, if the beaches are contaminated by radioactive fallout relief efforts will need to find another route.

These various nuclear attack scenarios are not set in stone: North Korea could use a smaller weapon, or the warhead might fail to work, get shot down by U.S. defenses, or land in the ocean. Still, North Korea is making phenomenal progress in both its nuclear and missile programs, and sooner or later it will have a large, reliable warhead on a reliable, accurate missile. While disturbing, the discussion of casualties should only reinforce the resolve of all sides to avoid the use of nuclear weapons at all costs.

Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national-security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and the Daily Beast. In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. You can follow him on Twitter: @KyleMizokami. This first appeared in 2018.

Image: Reuters

Source: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/sorry-california-us-west-coast-now-range-north-korean-nukes-112651

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San Francisco is a city of extremes.

It has more billionaires per capita than anywhere else in the world, but it also has a homeless problem so severe that it rivals some third-world nations. On any given day you can see souped-up Lamborghinis and blinged-out trophy wives in one part of the city, then walk over a few blocks and see piles of human feces, puddles of urine and vomit caked on the sidewalks. The misery of homelessness, mental illness, and drug addiction hits deep in San Francisco and has turned parts of a beautiful city into a public toilet.

SAN FRANCISCO HUMAN FECES MAP SHOWS WASTE BLANKETING THE CALIFORNIA CITY 

As the problem grows, residents are finding themselves at a crossroads. The compassion for those struggling is constantly being challenged by a fear for their own safety and quality of life. It never had to get this bad, say, critics, who are appalled that it’s getting worse every day.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed says it’s inhumane to let addicts languish on the streets, but homeless advocates say the measure to force mentally ill drug addicts into housing and treatment for up to a year is extreme and a violation of civil rights. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

“I won’t visit my son who lives out there again,” Amelia Cartwright told Fox News. “It’s disgusting. I went there a few months ago for the first time and this guy who looked homeless and really beat up spit on me. Can you imagine? He spit on me!”

While it might be a shock to the system for some, residents say such interactions are common.

One cleaning woman who works downtown told Fox News a homeless woman comes by every day, curses at her and spits on the window.

SAN FRANCISCO PLANS TO RESERVE PARKING LOT FOR HOMELESS LIVING OUT OF VEHICLES: REPORTS 

Lately, the cases of citizens being harassed by mentally ill street people has taken a dangerous turn.

Last week, Austin Vincent, a homeless man, was caught on camera attacking a 26-year-old woman outside her condo complex. As he threw Paneez Kosarian on the ground, he allegedly talked about saving her from robots and offered to kill another woman nearby so he could earn her trust.

Vincent was arrested and pleaded not guilty to a false imprisonment charge and two counts of battery and attempted robbery. Instead of being thrown in jail, Superior Court Judge Christine Van Aken released Vincent over the objections of the district attorney’s office. Her decision caused a huge backlash in the community and was slammed by Mayor London Breed and other city officials. The judge eventually ordered Vincent to wear an ankle monitor.

On Monday, Vincent was arrested again for an alleged assault that occurred in February. The police said he was armed with a knife and approached a woman and her friends as they waited for a ride. Vincent allegedly threatened to kill the woman and lunged at the group.

The controversy over Vincent’s initial release is just the latest example prompting people in the City by the Bay to say they don’t feel safe on the streets. Outraged residents Fox News spoke to in late June said they’re tired of waiting for their elected officials to come up with a plan and complain no one ever seems to be on the same page.

What’s equally frustrating is that the city still manages to blow through hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars each year to address the crisis and blames everyone but themselves when the homeless count rises.

“It’s not as though we don’t see the problem,” a former Apple employee told Fox News. “There’s no way to escape it.”

“It’s not as though we don’t see the problem. There’s no way to escape it.”

— Former Apple employee 

In May, city officials braced themselves when a preliminary homeless count was released. They expected the numbers to rise and they were right. Initial data showed that it had jumped 17 percent from 2017. The double-digit growth was bad enough but then it got a whole lot worse.

When the final report was released a couple of months later, it showed the street count increase would have been 30 percent if the city had stuck to the same definition of homelessness as they had in the past. This year, San Francisco opted to use the federal definition instead of the one they wrote themselves.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of homelessness includes people who are living on the streets, in cars or in shelters. San Francisco’s own definition widens the category to people without a permanent address who are in prison, rehab or hospitalized. If the city used the same measurement it had in years past, the numbers would show an increase from 7,400 to 9,784 — or 30 percent in 2019.

A person pushes a cart past parked RVs along a street in San Francisco on June 27, 2019. A federally mandated count of homeless in San Francisco increased 17 percent in two years, driven in part by a surge of people living in RVs and other vehicles. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

City spokesman Jeff Cretan explained the change by saying San Francisco is “looking at the HUD numbers because it helps us work in collaboration with other places like Los Angeles or our neighboring counties.”

Some homeless advocates weren’t on board with that logic and accused the city of manipulating the findings to make it seem as though more progress had been made when, in fact, the numbers showed the opposite.

The city has also blamed the rise in homelessness on big tech companies that have moved to the area, including Twitter, Salesforce, NVIDIA and Eventbrite. They say the businesses have brought high-paying jobs with them, which has caused housing prices to soar and pushed people who can’t afford to keep up financially out of the area or onto the streets.

TOP TECH CEOS BICKER OVER CHRONIC HOMELESSNESS

Jose, a Bay Area Rapid Transit worker who has been living in San Francisco for more than 20 years, told Fox News he fears he too could be homeless one day.

“What’s happening is that they are building too many condominiums and kicking the people out,” he said. “I’m lucky they haven’t kicked me out yet.”

According to a 2018 report from HUD, a family of four living in San Francisco making $117,422 a year qualifies as “low income.” For singles, a salary of $82,000 or less puts them in the bracket. In comparison, “low income” for a family of four in New York is  $83,450 per year.

In his 2019 report on housing affordability in the San Francisco Bay Area, Compass economist Patrick Carlisle said: “affordability percentages remain low by historical standards, and the Bay Area typically has among the lowest in the nation.”

According to data from the California Association of Realtors, only 17 percent of households can afford to buy a median-priced home. In San Francisco, that’s $1.7 million.

“It’s impossible to buy a home here,” resident Doug Stall told Fox News. “You’ve got these ridiculous housing prices, crime and these people crapping on the streets. Why would anyone want to stay?”

But to say the city hasn’t tried to address the problem would be wrong. It has. The problem is that it has backfired spectacularly.

One of the biggest statewide blunders is Proposition 47.

Supported by the California Democratic Party and championed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the referendum was passed by a wide margin in 2014. The idea behind it was to reduce certain non-violent felonies to misdemeanors in order to free up resources for cops and prosecutors to go after serious, violent offenders. This included downgrading fraud, forgery, shoplifting, and grand theft as long as the total value of the stolen property was less than $950.

It also included illegal drugs.

“The goal was to be more helpful to society, helpful to the homeless issue, helpful to the police department and the court system. But as we saw, it’s a total failure at this point,” Richie Greenberg, a former mayoral candidate, told Fox News.

He added: “The intention was to help, of course, but what it really wound up doing is that it made San Francisco more attractive to those who are both homeless and those who are drug addicts to move here. We are now finding that homelessness is increasing. Drug addiction is increasing and the number of people here — the numbers are increasing, as well.”

A man stands outside his tent on Division Street in San Francisco. (AP)

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It’s 4:18 in the afternoon in Oakland, California. Deep below the city, the Hayward Fault — one of the most active fault lines in the country — suddenly slips, setting off a magnitude-7.0 earthquake.

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Acting on tips from an informant, authorities said they saw that Jameson liked and loved pro-Islamic State and pro-terrorism Facebook posts. In the coming weeks, the FBI alleged, Jameson would plot a Christmas suicide terror attack on San Francisco’s Pier 39, a popular tourist destination.

“He had been there before and knew that it was a heavily crowded area,” an FBI affidavit filed Friday said. “Jameson explained that he also desired to use explosives, and described a plan in which explosives could ‘tunnel’ or ‘funnel’ people into a location where Jameson could inflict casualties.”

Authorities announced terrorism charges against Jameson Friday. His plot comes as Islamic State has called for attacks on Western cities around the Christmas holidays.

The arrest of Jameson highlights a larger concern about the radicalization of U.S. residents by terrorist groups. Jameson’s alleged plot comes just weeks after terrorist attacks in New York City.

Authorities alleged in court documents that Jameson told an undercover FBI employee he believed to be a senior Islamic State leader that Pier 39 would be an ideal location for a terrorist attack because it is often crowded with tourists. On Monday, he sent the undercover employee a map and photos of the site, authorities said.

Jameson allegedly sought from the undercover employee an assault rifle, ammunition, powder, tubing, nails, timers and remote detonators — materials that can be made into a pipe bomb. According to the FBI, he said he “did not need an escape plan because he was ready to die.” He also said he was trained in both the M-16 and AK-47 rifle, the court filing said.

The suspect allegedly told the undercover employee that “we need something along the lines of New York or San Bernardino,” apparently referring to the Halloween attack in Manhattan when a man crashed a rented pickup truck into cyclists and runners, which killed eight people, and the shooting-related terrorist attack in Southern California in 2015 that left 14 people fatally shot.

FBI agents conducted a search warrant on Wednesday at the suspect’s Modesto home and found a note signed by Abdallah abu Everitt ibn Gordon al-Amriki, dated Dec. 16, which in part said, “I Abdallah [abu] Everitt ibn Gordon have committed these acts upon the Kuffar [non-Muslims], in the name of Dar al Islam [the Muslim world], Allahu Akbar!”

“You’ve Allowed Donald J Trump to give away Al Quds [Jerusalem] to the Jews. Both You and he are wrong, it belongs to the Muslemeen [Muslims],” the letter allegedly said. “Long Live Isil, Long Live Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”

The FBI also seized firearms and ammunition from the home.

Jameson completed basic U.S. Marine Corps recruit training in 2009 and earned a sharpshooter rifle qualification, according to the affidavit. He was discharged for failing to disclose a history of asthma.

Jameson came to the attention of the FBI in late September, when a person described as a credible source told the FBI of a suspicious Facebook account whose author published posts supportive of terrorism. Among the posts he liked or loved on Facebook in recent months was an image of Santa Claus standing in New York with dynamite, with a caption saying, “ISIS post image of Santa with dynamite threatening attack on New York.”

By late October, Jameson allegedly messaged the source that “I am here to beg to join the cause against darul kuffar,” or the non-Muslim world. He said he became a Muslim two years ago in Merced and said: “That is what will make me more useful. I can blend in.”

On Saturday, Jameson met with the undercover FBI employee, who purported to report to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a claim that appeared to please him, the affidavit said. Jameson said he was an infantryman and well-versed in a book that discusses the building of improvised explosives, the court document said.

The undercover employee told Jameson to not do anything without his knowledge, adding he needed to get approval from his superiors.

Late Monday night, Jameson told the undercover employee that “I … don’t think I can do this after all. I’ve reconsidered.”

After securing a warrant, the FBI conducted a search of Jameson’s home Wednesday. Jameson “discussed aspects of the plan to carry out an attack, noting he would be happy if an attack was carried out,” the affidavit said.

In Modesto Friday, Jameson’s father, Gordon Jameson, told KFSN-TV that he was shocked by the charges. He said he sometimes talked to his son about religion and Everitt’s conversion to the Islamic faith but that he never spoke of violence. “Unreal. I really couldn’t believe it,” he told the station. “I am kind of lost right now. That is not how he was raised.”

The arrest comes at a time of heightened concern about terrorism on American soil.

Earlier this month, Akayed Ullah, a 27-year-old legal permanent resident from Bangladesh, was charged with detonating a pipe bomb in the New York transit system, injuring himself and four others. Authorities said he was radicalized through internet propaganda, and allegedly said, “I did it for Islamic State.”

Authorities said the deadly Halloween terrorist attack in Manhattan was committed by Sayfullo Saipov, 29, a trucker and Uber driver who legally came to the U.S. from Uzbekistan in 2010. Officials said he became radicalized by watching Islamic State videos on his cellphone.

FBI spokeswoman Katherine Zackel said there is no specific and credible threat to the Bay Area at this time.

Jameson was charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.

San Francisco acting Mayor London Breed said police will be increasing their presence throughout the city as the FBI investigation continues.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-terror-attack-plot-san-francisco-20171222-story.html

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