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Full Moon Party 2022 Hopeful News for Koh Phangan’s Economy

Full Moon Party 2022 Hopeful News for Koh Phangan 's Economy

This month’s return of the popular Full Moon Party means more than just a resurgence of the boisterous gathering of foreign visitors. The good news is that it could help resurrect a cash-starved local economy.

The event is held once a month on full moon night at Haad Rin on Koh Phangan in Surat Thani. Full Moon Parties are one of Thailand’s biggest draws for young, hard-partying fun-seekers.

Before Covid-19 struck, the all-night party was known to attract between 10,000 and 30,000 tourists.

For almost two years Haad Rin has been without its main draw, although lately provincial officials have experimented with bringing it back.

Thanks to the Government’s easing of Covid-19 rules this has meant the return of many overseas tourists. Furthermore, many young tourists will have heard of a Full Moon Party resuming on April 16, though with some strings attached.

Full Moon Party Hiatus and Relaunch Trials

In the early days of Covid-19 in Thailand, the last Full Moon Party took place on Feb 8, 2020.

Following the outbreak, the authorities ordered mass gatherings and parties to be curtailed or suspended.

Leaders of local government, district police, and public health officials met to discuss the event, ultimately deciding it must be postponed indefinitely from March 2020.

After the pandemic halted overseas tourist arrivals more than a year later, the government announced the reopening of tourism on July 1, 2021. In addition, it announced the piloting of the Phuket Sandbox program.

Two weeks later, visitors could use the sandbox program to visit nearby Koh Samui and Koh Tao, and Koh Phangan. Onward trips gave hope that the Full Moon Party could be revived.

The hope came true on Oct 22 last year when tourism operators on Haad Rin in Koh Phangan were given permission to organize the event in a Covid-safe setting. With the usual bonfires, fire jugglers, and club music, the party followed the theme of “Back to the Roots.”

The nightlife operators who struggled financially to find their feet were missing, although a few were back selling food.

First Relaunch Trial, Koh Phangan

The majority of partygoers were foreign tourists staying on Koh Phangan. But new restrictions applied, such as passing on-site temperature checks, completing contact tracing forms, and providing evidence of double vaccination.

As a result of the first relaunch trial, Koh Phangan had to wait almost five months for the second trial to be held on March 17. There were more tourists this time around, many of them coming from Koh Samui by ferry.

While both experiments came and went, plans were being made to have the Full Moon Party return on April 16, which coincides with Songkran, a five-day festival that starts on Wednesday.

The party is expected to see its highest turnout since the end of the pandemic due to the long weekend exodus.

In an interview with the Haad Rin Tourism Association, Thawit Somwang told the Bangkok Post the April 16 party will focus on the concept of “Back to the Roots”. Organizers have requested permission from the local authorities to hold the party and are confident the request will be granted.

With the new-normal protocols in place, the party can get underway after a year of planning.

A Significant Drop in Tourists Numbers

According to him, the success of the event was due to the lifting of many Covid-19 restrictions and residents adapting to public health safety measures while resuming the tourism business.

In addition, more than 90% of residents are vaccinated and Koh Phangan is an island, which makes it ideal for preventing infections.

However, due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, we don’t expect many visitors from Israel, France, and the US [for the party on April 16] since it is now the low tourist season and there is a significant drop in tourists from those countries,” he said.

Scandinavian countries have attracted a steady stream of tourists.

Approximately 10,000 overseas tourists are expected to attend the full moon party from hotels and other accommodations on Haad Rin. Another 5,000 tourists might come from other parts of the island.

Island Full Moon Party Restrictions

In order to comply with the regulations issued by the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), the party must wind down by 11 p.m. Mr. Thawit, however, said that he believes the authorities should allow the full moon party to continue until 1 am or 2 am the following morning.

In his view, many tourists spend most of the day sunbathing at the beach before returning to their hotels and going out for dinner. They normally arrive at the full moon party at 8 pm or 9 pm, and if it ends at 11 pm, they will only have a few hours at the party.

Beach vendors must register and beach entrances and exits are clearly marked. Visitors also must be fully vaccinated and have passed ATK tests.

He said, “We realized we had to establish rules to rein in the party. We won’t tolerate anything that will tarnish Koh Phangan’s reputation.”

Koh Phangan’s tourism-dependent economy has been largely driven by the Party. The party attracts people from at least 15 countries and is promoted worldwide.

Tourism brought in cash through purchases of airline tickets, ferries, accommodation, meals, tour guides, and vendors. This kept the entire local economy humming.

Koh Phangan’s three tambons as well as Koh Tao nearby have been closely associated with the party for 30 years. In addition to hotel and restaurant projects, the party has given birth to a wide range of tourism-related initiatives.

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

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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

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.

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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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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

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Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

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Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

trump

Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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

Supreme Court

(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

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Could Last-Minute Surprises Derail Kamala Harris’ Campaign? “Nostradamus” Explains the US Poll.

Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

US Inflation will Comfort a Fed Focused on Labor Markets.

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