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Sao Paulo mayoral candidate José Luiz Datena hits rival Pablo Marçal with chair during TV debate
Rio de Janeiro — A candidate in the mayoral race in Sao Paulo, Brazil was treated and released Monday from a hospital after one of his five rivals in a televised debate slammed him with a metal chair following references to allegations of sexual misconduct. Pablo Marçal, a personal development influencer turned right-wing politician, referred to the allegations against José Luiz Datena, a former TV presenter turned candidate, during the debate Sunday evening and said Datena had wanted to slap him.
He added: “You’re not even man enough to do this.”
Datena, who has denied the allegations, then came over toward Marçal’s podium with the chair above his head and slammed it into Marçal’s side as the influencer put up his arms. The moderator of the TV Cultura debate then quickly interrupted and cut to commercials, and the debate resumed later Sunday night without Marçal.
Marçal’s team shared video of him subsequently rushing to a hospital in an ambulance while receiving respiratory support. He explained on social media channels Monday that he had felt pain while breathing, and had suffered a fracture at the bottom of his rib cage.
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Marçal suffered “trauma to the right chest region and right wrist, without major associated complications,” the Syrian-Lebanese hospital said in a statement Monday, adding that he had been discharged.
A video on social media shows a doctor talking to Marçal in the hospital bed, telling him that he has “a little line of a fracture.” Marçal referred to the incident on social media as “attempted homicide,” and compared it to the assassination attempt against Donald Trump earlier this year and to the stabbing of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro in the lead up to the 2018 presidential election.
Marçal has parlayed his internet fandom and fiery rhetoric into a nascent political movement, shooting up in the polls in recent months and now running neck-and-neck with incumbent Ricardo Nunes and leftist lawmaker Guilherme Boulos. That has drawn even greater attention to the mayoral race in Brazil’s biggest city.
An inquiry into the alleged misconduct by Datena never resulted in any charges, and it was shelved when the accuser retracted her statements.
Speaking to reporters after the debate, Datena explained that the episode had been especially painful for him because he believes it prompted his mother-in-law to suffer a series of strokes and pass away.
On Monday, Datena said in a statement that he had made a mistake, but that he did not regret it “at all.”
“If the circumstances were the same, I would not refrain from repeating the gesture, an extreme response to a history of aggression perpetrated against me and many others by my adversary,” his statement said.
Marçal’s campaign team said the debate shouldn’t have continued without him, and that it hopes appropriate legal measures will be taken against Datena.
A statement from Sao Paulo’s public security agency said the incident was registered as “bodily injury and insult” at a local police station on Sunday night, indicating that an investigation was under way.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is backing Boulos. Bolsonaro endorsed Nunes, but many supporters of the former president have rallied behind Marçal, enthralled by his persona.
NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.
The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.
In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.
“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.
“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.
The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.
At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public
An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.
“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.
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Wisconsin school shooter was in contact with California man plotting his own attack, court documents say
The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California whom authorities say was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
A Southern California judge issued a restraining order Tuesday under California’s gun red flag law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man. The order requires the man to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.
Carlsbad is located just north of San Diego.
According to the order, the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, the Wisconsin shooter, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives. The order doesn’t say what building he had targeted or when he planned to launch his attack. It also doesn’t detail his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.
CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.
Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”
On a Madison city website providing details about the shooting, police disclosed Wednesday that two guns were found at the school, but only one was used in the shooting. A law enforcement source previously told CBS News the weapon used appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.
Barnes told the AP that he did not know how the suspected shooter obtained the guns and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes told the AP.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school that offers prekindergarten classes through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.
The Dan County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the two people killed Wednesday as 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara.
An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.”
West’s exact position with the school was unclear.