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China Threatens Retaliation if EU Sanctions Chinese Companies Supplying Russia

China Threatens EU Over Sanctions

China has threatened the European Union (EU) that Beijing will respond “strictly and strongly” to any restrictions imposed for companies supplying Russia with so-called dual-use commodities that may be used for both military and civilian purposes.

The EU’s executive branch has suggested imposing tough trade restrictions on certain Chinese companies as part of its efforts to tighten down on corporations supplying the Kremlin with prohibited items and technologies that have supported its war machine in Ukraine.

A top European Union official encouraged the bloc’s 27 member nations on Tuesday to impose trade sanctions on countries that assist the Kremlin in circumventing the bloc’s sanctions against Russia, prompting China to threaten retaliation if targeted.

During a visit to Kyiv, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that the measures, which would set a new precedent for EU action, should be included in a new round of Russia sanctions being discussed by the member countries.

“Recently, we’ve seen an increase in highly unusual trade flows between the European Union and certain third countries.” “These goods then end up in Russia,” von der Leyen stated as he stood next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

china russia

China using intermediary countries

She did not name the countries, but EU officials have long expressed worry over some trade flows through China and Iran.

“If we see that goods are going from the European Union to third countries and then ending up in Russia, we could propose to the member states to sanction those goods,” von der Leyen told reporters.

Any sanctions must be approved unanimously by all 27 members. Over the last few months, von der Leyen’s panel has become in charge of recommending which sanctions to impose, leaving member countries to work out their differences, often over several weeks.

“This tool will be used only as a last resort, after a thorough risk assessment and approval from EU member states.” “However, there should be no doubt that we work against sanctions evasion,” she stated.

China’s foreign minister Qin Gang, stated that if the EU took action against Chinese enterprises doing legitimate business in Russia, Beijing would retaliate strongly.

Following a meeting with his German counterpart in Berlin, Qin Gang stated that Beijing had regulations prohibiting the delivery of guns to crisis areas. Simultaneously, he insisted that “exchange and cooperation between Chinese and Russian companies” be allowed to continue.

“We are strictly opposed to some countries using their own domestic laws, their long arm jurisdiction, to impose one-sided sanctions against China,” Qin added, according to an official translation. “In such a case, we would also react strongly to this and defend the legitimate interests of our country and our companies.”

china supplying russiaChina supplying dual use commodities

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock emphasised that any penalties will target individual firms, not countries, that sell crucial components to Russian armaments manufacturers, including so-called dual use commodities.

“This is not directed at any particular country, but rather at these sanctioned goods,” she told reporters in Berlin. “However, we expect everyone, including China, to apply appropriate pressure to their companies.”

Since President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces into Ukraine on February 24, the EU has placed ten rounds of sanctions on Russia. Banks, corporations, and markets have all been impacted, including elements of the volatile energy sector. Asset freezes and travel bans have been imposed on nearly 1,000 officials.

Much effort has gone into blocking loopholes so that crucial items to Putin’s war campaign do not pass through. Apart from penalties targeting Iranians suspected of sending drones to Russia, this is the first time efforts to target trade via other countries have been publicized.

Previous sanctions have been agreed in just months, which is extremely swift for the EU. However, new measures are becoming increasingly difficult to support because they harm the economic and political interests of some member countries while aiming for the Kremlin.

China and Russia have been strengthening their ties in recent years and have developed a closer relationship, often referred to as a strategic partnership. The two countries have worked together on a range of issues, including defense, energy, and foreign policy.

china russia

Joint military exercises

Some of the factors driving their relationship include shared concerns about the dominance of the United States in global affairs, as well as mutual economic interests. Russia has been seeking to diversify its energy exports away from Europe, while China is hungry for natural resources to fuel its rapidly growing economy.

In recent years, the two countries have also conducted joint military exercises and signed a number of agreements to deepen their cooperation in the areas of defense and security. However, it’s worth noting that while China and Russia may have shared interests in some areas, they also have their own separate goals and agendas, and their partnership is not without its challenges and tensions.

The European Union (EU) has imposed sanctions on Russia in response to a range of issues, including Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, its involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and its alleged role in the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020.

The EU sanctions against Russia have included travel bans and asset freezes on individuals and entities deemed responsible for the actions that the EU has condemned. These measures are often targeted at Russian government officials, military commanders, and individuals who are believed to have played a role in human rights violations or the suppression of political opposition.

In addition to targeted sanctions against individuals and entities, the EU has also imposed broader economic sanctions on Russia. For example, the EU has restricted Russia’s access to capital markets and banned imports of certain goods, such as equipment used in the oil and gas industry.

Russia has responded to the EU sanctions with its own retaliatory measures, such as banning imports of certain EU products and restricting travel by EU officials.

Overall, the EU sanctions on Russia are part of a broader effort to pressure Russia to change its behavior and respect international norms and agreements. However, the effectiveness of the sanctions in achieving these goals is a matter of debate, and there are concerns about the impact of the sanctions on both the Russian and European economies.

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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.

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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

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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