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By Raul Cortes, Reuters Mexican authorities are warning people not to wear masks or costumes to avoid being mistaken for a cartel member. Photo: RNZ / Jeremy Rees In the Mexican state of Sinaloa, authorities have ordered residents not to don masks or costumes for Halloween to avoid being confused with criminals amid a worsening cycle of cartel violence. Home to the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, the northwestern state has been wracked by deadly infighting between factions of the group following the arrest of one of its leaders, drug trafficker Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, in the United States in late July. The intra-cartel warfare has left hundreds of people dead or missing since September, and the federal government has deployed hundreds of soldiers to the region. "Do not wear a costume or a...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R) jumps on stage as he joins former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on 5 October. Photo: JIM WATSON / AFP The crowd-sourced fact-checking feature of Elon Musk's X, Community Notes, is not countering false claims about the US election, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said in a report today. Of the 283 misleading X posts that CCDH analysed, 209, or 74 percent of the posts, did not show accurate notes to all X users correcting false and misleading claims about the elections, the report said. "The 209 misleading posts in our sample that did not display available Community Notes to all users have amassed 2.2 billion views," CCDH said. ...

Russia is seeking around to US$20 decillion from Google in fines and interest. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images via CNN Newsource By Hanna Ziady and Anna Chernova, CNN Russia is seeking an unfathomable sum of money from one of the world's biggest tech companies. Google reportedly owes the Kremlin more than 2 undecillion rubles - a 2 followed by 36 zeroes - after refusing to pay fines that are now accruing for blocking pro-Russian channels on YouTube. The virtually unpronounceable penalty amounts to US$20 decillion - or around US$20 billion trillion trillion (NZ$34 decillion). That dwarfs the size of the global economy. At US$110 trillion, according to International Monetary Fund figures, world gross domestic product looks modest in comparison. Google parent Alphabet, meanwhile, has a...