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Empty Life Rafts from HTMS Sukhothai Found as Thai Navy Searches for 23 Missing Crew

Two empty life rafts, thought to belong to the ill-fated HTMS Sukhothai, have been discovered as the Royal Thai Navy intensifies its air and sea search for the 23 missing crew.
The crew of a trawler discovered the first empty life raft drifting at sea about 30 kilometers off the coast of Lamae district yesterday (Wednesday). On Thursday, the second empty life raft from the sunken HTMS Sukhothai washed ashore in Chumphon province’s Lang Suan district.
A medicine kit and a cell phone with its back cover were also discovered on the raft. Because the trawler has not yet completed its fishing and retrieval of its fishing equipment, the raft and the two items are expected to be returned to shore in 1-2 days.
Vice Admiral Pichai Lorchusakul, commander of the First Naval Area Command, stated today that four ships, five helicopters, and two fixed-wing aircraft participated in high-seas search and rescue operations.
Meanwhile, vessels from the Second Naval Area Command, the Fisheries and Marine and Coastal Resources departments, private volunteers, and private rescue foundations have joined the search operation, focusing on coastal areas and conducting foot patrols along the Chumphon province shoreline.
Vice Admiral Pichai stated that the focus has shifted to searching along the coastline, and that the search teams are racing against the clock to find the missing crew.
He also stated that naval divers on board the Bang Rachan ship had been dispatched to survey the sunken HTMS Sukhothai, which lies at a depth of about 40 meters, and that the information gathered by the divers could reveal whether any crew members are still trapped in the sunken ship.
According to mapping data provided by the Hydrographic Department, the missing crew may be drifting at sea off the coast of Chumphon province, on its way to Surat Thani.
He expects more progress in the search operations as weather conditions improve.
The House Military Affairs Committee has summoned Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha in his capacity as Defence Minister, as well as RTN Commander-in-Chief Admiral Choengchai Chomchoengpaet, to testify about the tragic incident.
The chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee, Kriangsak Faisingam, stated that the panel has a few questions for the two men.
The first question is whether the defence minister or the naval commander-in-chief should be held accountable for ordering the HTMS to sea despite the bad weather. Was it a miscalculation or a lack of knowledge about the weather?
The next question is how the tragedy occurred, despite 1.2 billion baht being allocated for ship maintenance.
Finally, the committee wants to know if the HTMS Sukhothai was overloaded, with 105 men on board, and why there weren’t enough life vests for everyone.
Haikorn Polsuwan, an adviser to a House committee studying and monitoring budget spending management, asked committee chairman Chaiya Promma and Pheu Thai leader Cholnan Srikaew on Wednesday to look into the navy’s budget spending on warship maintenance.
He asked the committee to investigate whether the navy spent its maintenance budget wisely and whether the navy purchased enough life-saving equipment for crew members.
“The navy is required to follow the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. A ship must have an adequate supply of life jackets “He stated.
Dr. Cholnan stated that he will bring the issue up in parliament on Thursday and demand that Gen Prayut take responsibility.
“Someone must be held accountable,” he said, adding that the opposition will look into the navy’s budget for ship maintenance.
On Tuesday, Adm Choengchai admitted that there were not enough life jackets for the ship’s crew.
He did, however, explain that before the ship sank, it took on board 15 marines and another 15 personnel from the Air and Coastal Defence Command to participate in a ceremony commemorating the death anniversary of the Prince of Chumphon, who is regarded as the “Father of the Thai Navy” in Chumphon.
He stated that the ship’s crew already had personal life jackets, and that additional life jackets, as well as other life-saving devices such as life rafts, were kept in reserve for emergencies.
“Because there weren’t enough life jackets for the extra 30 people on board, we tried to save those who didn’t have life jackets,” Adm Choengchai explained, adding that a life raft can hold up to 15 people.
“Of the 30 people who did not have life jackets, 18 were rescued, while the rest remained in the water,” he said.
On Wednesday, Gen Prayut expressed his deepest regret for the casualties and expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased crew members, saying that he will ensure that the families of the deceased receive the compensation they deserve.
With 105 crew on board, the HTMS Sukhothai sank on Sunday evening about 20 nautical miles (around 37 kilometers) off the coast of Prachuap Khiri Khan.
The HTMS Sukhothai was on patrol off the coast of Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Bang Saphan district when it was battered by high waves and strong winds, according to navy spokesman Adm Pokkrong Monthatpalin.
The ship listed sharply and took on water, causing damage to its electrical systems and engine failure. He claimed that without power, the corvette listed even more and eventually capsized.
The navy deployed a remote-controlled SeaFox mine disposal vehicle on Wednesday to photograph the sunken corvette and assist in its salvage planning.
As of Wednesday, 82 of the 105 crew members on board the corvette when it went down had been found, according to the navy. Six people were found dead, and 23 people were still missing.
Thai Navy Touts Thai Culture Over No Bikinis Signs

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

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.
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 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.
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.
SOURCE | AP
News
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
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