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Thailand’s Road Death Toll Jumps to 158 on the 4th Day of Songkran

Thailand's Road Death Toll Jumps to 158 on the 4th Day of Songkran

On Friday, the fourth day of the Songkran holiday’s “7 Dangerous Days,” 44 people were killed and 368 were injured in traffic accidents across the Thailand, bringing the Songkran death toll to 158. The number of deaths in the first four days of the holiday is down from 172 in the same period last year by 14.

According to data from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation’s road safety centre, 1,433 individuals were injured in 1,422 traffic incidents between April 11 and 14. This compares to 1,188 injuries in 1,207 accidents during the same period last year, when fewer travels were undertaken due to Covid-19 limits.

According to Chotnarin Kerdsom, deputy permanent secretary for the Interior Ministry, speeding was the leading cause of accidents (35.6%), followed by drunk driving (28.5%). The Bangkok Post reports, Motorcycles were responsible for 83.1% of all accidents.

Nan had the most accidents (16) and the most injuries (16) on Friday alone. Bangkok, Nakhon Sawan, and Phitsanulok each reported three fatalities.

Officials stationed at 1,862 road checkpoints halted 351,228 vehicles for inspection. A total of 52,422 motorists were ticketed for breaking traffic laws. A total of 15,467 offenders did not have a driver’s licence, and 15,144 did not wear crash helmets.

Chiang Mai, Nakhon Si Thammarat, and Nan have so far reported the most traffic accidents, with 45 each. Nakhon Si Thammarat also had the most injuries, at 48. According to Mr Chotnarin, Bangkok had the most deaths (12).

Drunk Driving

Thailand’s 7 Dangerous Days of Songkran

Songkran has historically been associated with a high number of road traffic accidents and deaths in Thailand. The Thai government has implemented various measures to promote road safety during the Songkran festival, including increased law enforcement, public awareness campaigns, and road safety measures such as setting up checkpoints and promoting the use of helmets and seat belts.

However, despite these efforts, accidents and fatalities have continued to occur during Songkran due to factors such as drink-driving, speeding, lack of seat belt or helmet use, and other risky behaviors associated with the festival. The combination of increased traffic volumes, festive atmosphere, and alcohol consumption during Songkran can pose significant road safety risks.

It’s important to note that road safety data can change over time, and the most up-to-date information on Songkran-related accidents and deaths in Thailand can be obtained from reliable sources such as the Thai government or other relevant authorities. It’s crucial for individuals to prioritize road safety during the festival season and avoid engaging in dangerous behaviors such as drink-driving or risky driving practices.

Thailand Records 25 Road Deaths on First Day of Songkran Holiday

Road Deaths in Thailand

Thailand has a high rate of road deaths, and it has been a persistent issue for many years. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018, Thailand had an estimated road traffic mortality rate of 32.7 deaths per 100,000 population in 2016, which was one of the highest in the world. The report also estimated that Thailand had a total of 22,491 road traffic deaths in 2016.

The Thai government has taken various measures to improve road safety, including implementing stricter traffic laws, increasing enforcement, and promoting road safety education and awareness campaigns. However, road traffic accidents continue to be a significant public health challenge in Thailand, with factors such as inadequate infrastructure, lack of proper traffic management, and risky driving behaviors contributing to the high number of road deaths.

It’s important to note that road safety data can change over time, and the most up-to-date information on road deaths in Thailand can be obtained from reliable sources such as the Thai government or international organizations such as the WHO.

Drunk Driving During Songkran 2023

Drunk Driving

Drunk driving is a serious issue in Thailand, contributing to a significant number of road traffic accidents and fatalities. According to data available up to my knowledge cutoff date in September 2021, drunk driving has been a major factor in road accidents in Thailand.

The Thai government has implemented various measures to combat drunk driving, including strict laws and regulations, increased enforcement, and public awareness campaigns. The legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit for drivers in Thailand is 0.05%, and drivers found to be above this limit can face penalties such as fines, license suspension, and even imprisonment.

Additionally, the Thai government has implemented campaigns to educate the public about the dangers of drunk driving and the consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Despite these efforts, drunk driving remains a significant challenge in Thailand. Factors such as cultural attitudes towards alcohol, lack of awareness, and inadequate enforcement of existing laws contribute to the persistence of this problem.

It is important for individuals to refrain from driving after consuming alcohol and for the government and relevant stakeholders to continue their efforts to prevent and address drunk driving through a multi-faceted approach that includes education, enforcement, and policy measures.

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

Google

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.

google

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

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

trump

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.

trump

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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Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

US Inflation will Comfort a Fed Focused on Labor Markets.

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