World News

By Jack Queen, Reuters A judge's decision leaves Elon Musk free to continue the giveaway because the matter likely won't be resolved until after the election next week. Photo: ANGELA WEISS / AFP A Pennsylvania state judge said he would not immediately move forward with a lawsuit that seeks to stop Elon Musk's US$1 million voter giveaway ahead of the 5 November US presidential election. At a hearing in Pennsylvania, Judge Angelo Foglietta said he would place the lawsuit on hold while a federal court considers whether to take up the case. Musk's bid to move the case frees him to continue the giveaway, because the matter likely won't be resolved until after Tuesday's election. The billionaire entrepreneur, who is spending heavily to back Republican Donald Trump, had been ordered to atte...

By Nick Valencia and Jason Morris, CNN Young Thug appears at a hearing on December 22, 2022, in Atlanta. Photo: Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP/File via CNN Newsource Young Thug was sentenced to time served as part of a sweeping case that originally included dozens of defendants. The rapper, whose given name is Jeffery Williams, will be released from custody and have to serve 15 years on probation as part of the non-negotiated plea agreement. In 2022, Williams was charged alongside more than two dozen others under Georgia's sprawling Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act - known as RICO. Prosecutors accused the rapper of leading a criminal street gang that committed murder and a slew of violent crimes in Atlanta dating back a decade. Williams has denied that...

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...

By Raziye Akkoc, AFP Chinese online retailer Temu will be investigated over concerns the site is doing too little to stop the sale of illegal products. File photo Photo: Nicole Serrano Chinese online retailer Temu will be investigated over concerns the site is doing too little to stop the sale of illegal products, in an investigation that could lead to large fines. Extremely popular in the European Union despite having entered the continent's market only last year, Temu has on average around 92 million monthly active users in the bloc. The investigation will also look at dangers from the platform's use of gamification and "potentially addictive design" that could hurt users' "physical and mental well-being," said the European Commission, the EU's powerful digital watchdog. Read more:...

By David Latona, Reuters People push shopping carts along a street covered in mud after flash floods ravaged Paiporta, in Valencia. Photo: JOSE JORDAN/AFP Rescue teams discovered the bodies of eight people who had been trapped in a garage after devastating flash floods hit eastern Spain, as the death toll in the Valencia region alone climbed to 155. Local authorities have not disclosed how many people are still unaccounted for after Europe's deadliest floods in years and Defence Minister Margarita Robles said the final national death toll could be much greater. Opposition politicians accused the central government in Madrid of acting too slowly to warn residents and send in rescue teams, prompting the Interior Ministry to say regional authorities were responsible for civil protection...

By Jarrett Renshaw and Nandita Bose for Reuters Union workers applaud at a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada on 18 October for US Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen one day after she debated her opponent, Nevada Republican US Senate candidate Sam Brown. Photo: ETHAN MILLER / Getty Images via AFP With the US election days away, Vice President Kamala Harris is struggling to secure the support of male volunteers in some labour unions whose phone calls and house visits are needed to get Democratic supporters out to vote, senior labour officials said. Most unions have long supported Democratic candidates, and both Harris and President Joe Biden have backed unions in contract negotiations and championed workers' rights. But Republican candidate Donald Trump, who was president from 2017-2021...

By Eric Cheung and Kathleen Magramo, CNN A car under an uprooted tree at New Taipei City, as Super Typhoon Kong-rey neared the coast in Taitung. Photo: CNA / AFP Heavy rains and high winds lashed Taiwan as the largest storm to hit the island in nearly three decades made landfall along its southeast coast, killing at least one person and injuring dozens. Typhoon Kong-rey packed winds approaching 200 kilometres per hour, equivalent to a Category 3 Atlantic hurricane, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC), as it made landfall in Taitung county on Friday morning. Kong-rey's radius of maximum wind - how far the strongest winds are from its centre - measured 320 kilometres on Thursday, meaning it is the largest storm to hit Taiwan since Typhoon Herb in 1996, said Chang Chun-...

With just days left before polls close in the United States presidential election, the race is expected to come down to just seven states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, where the result is on a knife edge, undercover police and extra security are being called in amid fears of voter intimidation from pro-Donald Trump activists. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is due in court on Friday (NZT) over his multimillion-dollar giveaway to swing voters. Follow all the action from the US presidential election with RNZ's liveblog: Source link