https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/xwq1h3/at_least_10_killed_including_mayor_in_mass/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/mexico/comments/xwqor5/esto_no_lo_he_visto_en_las_noticias_locales/?sort=controversial

https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1577803487001432065#m

Mexican mayor among 20 dead in mass shooting

Gunmen linked to organized crime have opened fire at city hall and a nearby home in San Miguel Totolapan in southwest Mexico, killing at least 20 people and injuring several others, local officials say.

Advertisment Police then responded to a nearby house, where many people were found dead from apparent gunshot wounds.

Another official confirmed that, in total, at least 20 people were killed.

The PRD political party, to which Conrado Mendoza belonged, confirmed the mayor’s death in a statement shortly after the attack.

The massacre is the third attack which shocked Mexico in recent weeks.

An Albuquerque sophomore was seriously and permanently injured in 2022 after a former Volcano Vista High School teacher brought two swords to class and encouraged students to fight with them, a lawsuit alleges.

Identified only as a 16-year-old sophomore at the time, the student injured in the incident still suffers from physical and mental scars, said plaintiff's attorney Jessica Hernandez.

“Parents, when they send their kids to school, they think, ‘The school going to take care of my kid during the day until my child comes back to me,'” she said. “And the last thing you expect as a parent for the teacher to be the one that puts this deadly weapon directly into a child's hands.”

The suit filed in 2nd Judicial District Court on Friday alleges teacher Loviata Mitchell — and Albuquerque Public Schools — violated the sophomore's constitutional rights.

It also alleges negligence by them, as well as by Volcano Vista assistant principal Manuel Alzaga for a report he wrote after the incident. The suit seeks undetermined damages and attorney fees.

APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta said Mitchell was terminated in July 2022, though she still appears to have her teaching license, according to an online state Public Education Department database.

In response to questions about the incident, Armenta said the district does not comment on pending litigation. An attorney representing the district could not immediately be reached for comment.

Roxie De Santiago, an attorney for Mitchell, also said her client could not comment on the suit because it was pending, but wrote in an email that “generally, we believe in the justice system and trust (that) the truth of this situation will be revealed through that process.”

Alzaga still listed as working at the school on its website. He also could not immediately be reached for comment.

‘I'm in trouble'

During a morning chemistry class in May 2022, Mitchell announced she had a “surprise” for her students, according to the suit.

She pulled out two swords — one a katana, and the other a rapier-style sword — that the suit said she'd snuck into the West Side Albuquerque school. She told her students they were props, and had them rearrange their desks into a ring to fight in.

Students pulled out their phones and recorded as a pair of their classmates dueled with the swords, the metal clinking as they parried and jabbed at each other in the makeshift sparring ring while a timer on a TV monitor ticked down.

But the next duel turned bloody, according to the suit. After being chosen by Mitchell to fight another student, the suit said, the sophomore's opponent cut her with the katana, opening a deep gash across her right hand, wrist and forearm. She started bleeding profusely.

“I'm in trouble,” Mitchell said right after the sophomore was cut, according to the suit. She then told the students to delete any video recordings they'd taken and to not tell anyone about what happened.

While the sophomore bled, the suit said Mitchell tried to call the school health office, but could not figure out how. The sophomore “began to feel nauseous and weak from blood loss,” prompting another student to run to the health office.

A health assistant came to the classroom and provided the sophomore first aid and called 911. About half an hour elapsed before anyone called first responders, the suit says.

In a student accident report after the incident, according to the suit, Alzaga said Mitchell had “brought a ‘prop' to school to show a lesson on metal and melding,” and that a student accidentally cut the other student with the prop sword.

Alzaga further noted the injury did not violate school rules.

When asked if Mitchell violated either school or district policy, Armenta again replied only that the district does not comment on pending litigation.

Citing APS' employee handbook, the suit says the district flatly prohibits anyone from bringing guns, knives or other weapons to school unless authorized to do so.

Since the incident, the now 17-year-old teen who was injured has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and still faces lingering pain in her hand and wrist, which suffered permanent damage, according to the suit.

She also struggles with basic tasks, including writing, preparing food and buttoning buttons.

“This injury has changed her entire life,” Hernandez said. “... As a 16-year-old, when you get hurt like this, and all of a sudden you can't do the same things that you used to do — it's really discouraging. It's depressing. It's olating.”

This really called the cops over a phone call from dailymail

President Biden: "Let me start off with two words; Made in America." pic.twitter.com/z83hNBtIMX

— Jeremy Art (@cspanJeremy) October 7, 2022

I'm ron burgundy

Rigged

https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/xpkhb2/russia_declares_98_secession_support_rate_in_sham/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/xphyov/initial_votes_show_over_96_in_occupied_ukraine/?sort=controversial

Generated from TLDR This:

People cast their votes in sham referendums in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast on Sept. 24, 2022. (

The so-called vote at gunpoint has been declared null and void by all countries that commented on the issue.

During the "referendums," the Russian troops were checking residents' houses and writing down the names of locals who voted against the annexation, according to Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Haidai.

They point weapons at people, give them these 'ballots' and tell exactly which box to check."

Russian state-controlled news outlet RIA Novosti wrote that Russia might formally annex the occupied regions on Oct. 4.

Kyiv warned that the illegal annexation votes would not change Ukraine's counteroffensive plans and that there would be no peace talks in case these "referendums" take place.

Javier Milei's minister of economy just announced an "emergency package" of measures to completely balance the budget in 2024 equivalent to over 5% of GDP.

This would be equivalent to a $1.4 trillion austerity package in a single year in the U.S. economy.

The measures include:…

— Daniel Di Martino 🇺🇸🇻🇪 (@DanielDiMartino) December 13, 2023

!neolibs !latinx

Something something STAY IN POD something something EAT THE BUGS

E U R O S E E T H E A N D C O P E

You know what that means.

Is there a more tired meme than a jury of one's peers

An Oklahoma woman has no parental rights over the son she raised for two years with her estranged wife, who has since started dating the former couple’s sperm donor, a judge ruled Monday.

Solomon Pena, 39, who ran for a state House seat last November and claimed the elections were 'rigged', was arrested on Monday after a standoff with a SWAT team in Albuquerque.

He was accused of hiring four killers to open fire at the homes of Adriann Barboa and Debbie O'Malley, two Bernalillo County Commissioners, and state Senators Linda Lopez and Moe Maestas.

The shootings occurred between December 4 2022, and January 3, 2023, officials said.

The shootings began December 4, when eight rounds were fired at the home of Barboa. Days later, state Rep. Javier Martinez's home was targeted, followed by a December 11 shooting at the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O'Malley.

More than a dozen rounds were fired at her home, police said.

Four men conspired with Pena, who is accused of paying them cash to carry out at least two of the drive-by shootings in stolen vehicles, while Pena 'pulled the trigger' during one of the crimes, Hartsock said.

The officer found bullet casings matching a handgun found later that morning in a Nissan Maxima registered to Pena.

The driver, identified Monday night as Jose Trujillo, was arrested on an outstanding warrant, leading to the discovery of more than 800 fentanyl pills and two firearms in the car, police said.

Overwatch 2 is set to release very soon and more details are steadily being released including information about one of the original game’s heroes: Symmetra.

In Overwatch lore, Symmetra is a character with Autism, but it was rarely reflected in-game despite comics and other story pieces indicating that she is on the spectrum.

The sequel is hoping to remedy this by making it far more apparent and celebrating her Autism in-game through quite a few voice lines.

In a thread on Twitter, Narrative Designer Joshi Zhang delved into how they’re subtly representing Autism as she dukes it out with and against fellow members of the Overwatch roster.

OW2 is highlighting Symmetra’s Autism in combat

“I asked myself, how would her autism influence her experience on the battlefield?” Zhang explained in a series of posts.

In order to showcase this, Zhang revealed how Symmetra will comment on sensations that please or bother her such as being mesmerized by hard light – a key component of her gameplay.

https://twitter.com/ZhangJoshi/status/1575933461352808463?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1575933479371833344%7Ctwgr%5E7019b0ee1a8a583e3c997f0025ab0bc7a8c710e4%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dexerto.com%2Foverwatch%2Foverwatch-2-dev-reveals-how-symmetras-autism-is-showcased-on-the-battlefield-1947087%2F

One clip the dev highlighted is when she gets a kill on the music-based hero Lucio, she will remark: “finally, I can hear myself think.”

According to the dev, there are plenty of other voice lines that indicate her perspective on things. Surely, there will be a lot to discover when the game is out, and everyone with a proper phone plan can check it out.

“At the end of the day, I hope that neurodivergent members of the OW community feel like they are seen. Autism is not a weakness; it’s a strength to be celebrated by all,” Zhang concluded.

https://twitter.com/ZhangJoshi/status/1575933501123067904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1575933501123067904%7Ctwgr%5E7019b0ee1a8a583e3c997f0025ab0bc7a8c710e4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dexerto.com%2Foverwatch%2Foverwatch-2-dev-reveals-how-symmetras-autism-is-showcased-on-the-battlefield-1947087%2F

It’s not yet clear what Blizzard has planned for Symmetra once Overwatch 2’s PvE story content is added later on in 2023, but seeing how they’re doing so much to showcase her Autism in PvP, it’s likely that there is much more to come.

Overwatch 2 is set to release October 4 on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch consoles with a mobile port still rumored for the future.

🚨#BREAKING: Mass Casualty has been Declared after a Large Container Ship Collides with Key Bridge Causing it completely Collapse⁰
📌#Baltimore | #Maryland

Currently, numerous agencies, including the Coast Guard and fire department have just declared a mass casualty incident as… pic.twitter.com/wvOTOVbvHE

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) March 26, 2024

wild vid

Earlier this month, Zoom followed in the footsteps of many of its peers in the tech industry and laid off 150 employees---about 2% of its workforce---in an effort to redirect its resources and invest in what the company described as "critical areas for the future." One of the teams that Zoom deemed superfluous was the group of employees working on diversity, equity, and inclusion, according to a Bloomberg report this week.

In an internal note to employees, chief operating officer Aparna Bawa claimed that, in lieu of an internal team, Zoom would bring on DEI consultants who would focus on inclusion. Per Bloomberg, Bawa also said that Zoom had to "change its approach to DEI." In a statement to Fast Company, a Zoom spokesperson said, "Zoom remains committed to DEI and ensuring its principles remain firmly rooted in our DNA across our entire company."

As Fast Company reported last year, this decision is in line with a broader trend across the tech industry---and other sectors, too---that has led companies to quietly disinvest from the very public commitments they made in 2020, in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. Too often, when companies are forced to trim headcount, DEI jobs are among the first to go. As the tech industry cut over 400,000 jobs between 2022 and 2023, many DEI teams were gutted; Twitter's 30-person DEI team, for example, was reduced to just two employees after repeated layoffs and Elon Musk's acquisition. In other cases, at companies like Amazon, former employees have reportedly been replaced with cheaper, less-experienced hires.

Like so many companies, Zoom brought on its first chief diversity officer, Damien Hooper-Campbell, in June 2020 and published its first diversity report in 2022. But Hooper-Campbell left within 22 months and was never replaced. (As Fast Company reported in 2021, Zoom did not have Hooper-Campbell report to the CEO or head of operations.) Over the past few years, many DEI leaders have left their posts due to burnout or opted to start their own consulting practices, often in response to shrinking budgets and the exhausting pace of their work---which is all the more challenging when corporate DEI commitments are constantly in flux.

While DEI practitioners have long had to contend with cyclical investment in their work, the Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action last year has sparked an especially strong backlash from politicians and business leaders. More recently, the issue has become the target of outspoken executives including Musk and Bill Ackman, who have openly derided DEI initiatives. And while the affirmative action ruling did not apply to private employers, Edward Blum---the conservative lawyer driving much of the anti-affirmative action movement---has brought lawsuits against such organizations as the Fearless Fund, a VC firm that invests in underrepresented founders.

Even beyond cutting jobs or trimming budgets, it's clear that this broader cultural pushback is impacting how companies are approaching DEI. As conservative activists have threatened legal action, companies including JPMorgan Chase and Tesla have already altered the language of their diversity initiatives or revised their DEI goals.

!chuds !nooticers