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Thailand’s Yellow Shirts Still At It

Chamlong Srimuang (L) and Sondhi Limthongkul

BANGKOK – Despite the fact that Thailand’s poisonous political situation has calmed remarkably in the 18 months since the dominant Pheu Thai Party came to power and named Yingluck Shinawatra prime minister, occasional strains still bubble to the surface.

There are still sideshows. Thus last weekend, 40 to 50 military officers gathered in front of the building of the royalist ASTV-Manager newspaper in Bangkok, protesting its harsh criticism of the army and the ‘slandering’ of the armed forces chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha.

ASTV-Manager remains the mouthpiece of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, the so-called Yellow Shirts who delivered years of chaos in their crusade to drive Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin, from the premiership and eventually out of the country.

Soldiers from the 1st army region first assembled on Jan. 11 after the paper compared Prayuth’s most recent outburst, in which he called it a “lousy newspaper,” to a “woman in her periods.” The troops staged a second protest the next day at the same spot, threatening to repeat the protest until the paper apologized. However, yesterday afternoon it was Prayuth himself who delivered a half-hearted apology.

The show of force after a public tit-for-tat when the paper attacked the armed forces for their handling of the border conflict with neighboring Cambodia over the ancient Preah Vihear Hindu temple. The International Court of Justice will hold hearings in April, after Cambodia requested the court to reinterpret aspects of the 1962 ruling in their favor. A decision is expected in October.

ASTV-Manager is controlled by Yellow Shirt leader Sondhi Limthongkul, who was nearly killed in an assassination attempt in April of 2009 when gunmen shot out the tires of his car and fired more than 100 M-16 and AK-47 rounds at the car. The attackers escaped when Sondhi’s followers in another car opened fire on them.

Sondhi miraculously escaped but suffered a serious head wound although he survived the surgery, which involved removing several bullet fragments embedded about half a centimeter deep in his skull. It has never been determined who did the shooting although Sondhi’s son and PAD spokesmen have speculated that a faction of the military or police might have been behind it.

Sondhi has repeatedly complained that he has been bankrupted by lawsuits and other expenses stemming from his Yellow Shirt leadership although he apparently has enough resources to keep his media empire going. At that, he is at one with much of the other Bangkok-based corporate media, especially television stations.

“They appear to be pushing the anti-government agenda to near-libelous extremes,” said a Bangkok source. “Their financiers are more worried about Pheu Thai’s “populist” policies affecting their profits than any genuine economic or political concerns, and I’m sure they despise the yellow shirts as vehemently as they do the red shirts. But Sondhi feeds off the situation to keep his anti-democracy movement going and, probably more important from his point of view, stay out of jail.”

The Yellow Shirts have been rendered largely quiescent, first by the magnitude of the Pheu Thai electoral victory and partly because Yingluck’s government has delivered a smorgasbord of populist policies that have driven public debt-to-GDP ratio from just under 40 percent to 44 percent, expected to rise to 51 percent by 2019, an explosion of spending on infrastructure in the wake of 2011’s flooding as well as public welfare schemes that have kept sentiment in check.

Apart from the paper’s regular anti-democratic diatribes, the Preah Vihear temple conflict has remained a potent vehicle for rallying supporters. The last PAD protest over the temple conflict was in early 2011, following another deadly clash at the border between Thai and Cambodian troops. The yellow shirts have called for open war with Cambodia, principally because Cambodian leader Hun Sen has publicly embraced Thaksin.

In the run-up to the international court hearings – during which the PAD has urged the government not to accept anything at all over concern about losing sovereignty – the Yellow Shirts’ news outlets are repeating their diatribes against Cambodia, the court and the army, They also began criticizing Prayuth, which deteriorated ultimately into the soldiers’ protest, who see not only their army chief being attacked but also the institution of the armed forces as a whole.

Prayuth told reporters earlier that the soldiers were free to hold such rallies because they were trying to protect the armed forces, not just him.

“If [the PAD] were the government, I would have to listen to it. But since it is not, I have no idea what to do with it,” Gen Prayuth told reporters during a visit to the border area earlier in the week.

Generally, the reactions by Thai journalists on the incident were swift and clear, with the Thailand Journalists Association calling on the army to respect freedom of the press. If the army feels the media have violated its rights, it can file a complaint with the National Press Council, the statement said.

The issue of press freedom is extremely touchy in Thailand. The government has cracked down severely on Internet comment ostensibly directed towards King Bhumibol Adulyadej and members of the royal family and his entourage. However, the crackdown has been interpreted by human rights organizations as aimed at any kind of political dissent whether it has anything to do with the king.

The government has used the lese majesty law often in conjunction with the Computer Crimes Act of 2007 to block all manner of content. According to the Washington, DC-based Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, some 75,000 Internet URL addresses have been blocked in Thailand since 2007. – by Saksith Saiyasombut, a Bangkok-based blogger

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

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Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

News

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli, To repay $6.4 Million

Washington — The Supreme Court rejected Martin Shkreli’s appeal on Monday, after he was branded “Pharma Bro” for raising the price of a lifesaving prescription.

Martin appealed a decision to repay $64.6 million in profits he and his former company earned after monopolizing the pharmaceutical market and dramatically raising its price. His lawyers claimed the money went to his company rather than him personally.

The justices did not explain their reasoning, as is customary, and there were no notable dissents.

Prosecutors, conversely, claimed that the firm had promised to pay $40 million in a settlement and that because Martin orchestrated the plan, he should be held accountable for returning profits.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Martin was also forced to forfeit the Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” which has been dubbed the world’s rarest musical album. The multiplatinum hip-hop group auctioned off a single copy of the record in 2015, stipulating that it not be used commercially.

Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and defrauding them of millions of dollars in two unsuccessful hedge funds he managed. Shkreli was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals (later Vyera), which hiked the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill after acquiring exclusive rights to the decades-old medicine in 2015. It cures a rare parasite condition that affects pregnant women, cancer patients, and HIV patients.

shkreli

He defended the choice as an example of capitalism in action, claiming that insurance and other programs ensured that those in need of Daraprim would eventually receive it. However, the move prompted criticism, from the medical community to Congress.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Attorney Thomas Huff said the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling was upsetting, but the high court could still overturn a lower court judgment that allowed the $64 million penalty order even though Shkreli had not personally received the money.

“If and when the Supreme Court does so, Mr. Shkreli will have a strong argument for modifying the order accordingly,” he told reporters.

Shkreli was freed from prison in 2022 after serving most of his seven-year sentence.

SOURCE | AP