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China’s Defence Minister Suddenly Missing From World Stage
China’s defence Minister Li Shangfu was noticeably absent from a meeting with Vietnamese defence leaders last week, according to three officials with direct knowledge of the matter, amid concerns regarding his more than two-week absence from the public eye.
On September 7-8, Li, 65, was scheduled to attend an annual gathering on defence cooperation hosted by Vietnam on its border with China; however, the meeting was postponed after Beijing informed Hanoi days before the event that the minister had a “health condition,” according to two Vietnamese officials.
Reuters is the first news organisation to disclose the sudden postponement of the meeting and the reasons given by China.
The State Council Information Office, along with China’s defence and foreign ministries, did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the Vietnam event. Thursday evening, attempts to contact the Vietnamese embassy in Beijing were unsuccessful.
The abrupt cancellation of Li’s trip follows China’s unexplained replacement of Foreign Minister Qin Gang in July after a lengthy absence from public view and a reorganisation of the leadership of the People’s Liberation Army’s elite Rocket Force in recent months, actions that have raised questions about the Chinese leadership’s decision-making.
Qin’s meteoric ascent through the ranks of the Communist Party was partially attributed to his closeness to President Xi Jinping, making his removal after just seven months on the job even more unexpected. Initially, Chinese officials stated that Qin’s absence from public view was due to his health.
In March, Li was named to his current position. Diplomats and other observers observe him attentively because, like Qin, he is one of China’s five State Councillors, a cabinet position with a higher rank than a regular minister.
Under the condition of anonymity, a U.S. official stated that Washington was aware of Li’s cancelled meetings with the Vietnamese. Last week, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Hanoi, where the two countries signed a historic upgrade to their partnership.
Li’s extended absence from public view has generated discussion. On September 8, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel posted on X, formerly Twitter: “First Foreign Minister Qin Gang disappears, then Rocket Force commanders vanish, and now Defence Minister Li Shangfu has not been seen in public for two weeks. Who will win this unemployment contest? Youth in China or Xi’s cabinet?”
When asked about Emanuel’s post this week, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson told reporters that she was “not aware of the situation.”
Li was last seen on August 29 delivering a keynote address at a security forum with African nations in Beijing. Prior to that, he attended high-level meetings in Russia and Belarus.
The Chinese minister of defence is primarily in charge of defence diplomacy and does not command combat forces. He is less well-known than the foreign minister, who appears frequently in state media.
Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, said that Li’s disappearance so soon after Qin’s demonstrates how enigmatic Chinese elite politics can be to the rest of the world.
“China under Xi simply does not feel the need to explain itself to the rest of the world.”
In 2018, the United States sanctioned Li for purchasing munitions from Russia’s largest arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.
Chinese officials have repeatedly said they want those sanctions dropped to facilitate improved discussions between the two sides’ militaries. During a defence conference in Singapore in June, U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin attempted to have a conversation with Li, but they never got beyond a salutation.
In 2016, Li was named deputy commander of the military’s then-new Strategic Support Force, an elite organisation tasked with expediting the development of space and cyber warfare capabilities. From 2017 until he became defence minister, he then oversaw the military’s procurement agency.
In a rare announcement in July, the unit stated that it was attempting to “clean up” its bidding process and invited the public to report irregularities extending back to 2017. There is no new information regarding potential findings.
Meanwhile, Taiwan has reported that China has flown 68 military aircraft and dispatched 10 naval vessels into areas surrounding the self-governed island on what appears to be the second day of military training exercises commanded by the Shandong aircraft carrier.
Beijing, which views Taiwan as its own territory and has not ruled out the use of force to accomplish its objective, has increased military and political pressure on the democratic island in an effort to bolster its claim to sovereignty.
Sixty-eight PLA aircraft and ten PLAN vessels were detected around Taiwan at approximately 6:00 a.m. on Thursday (22:00 GMT on Wednesday), according to a statement from Taiwan’s Defence Ministry.
Compared to the previous day, when Taipei reported detecting 35 warplanes, the number represented a significant increase.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry stated that some of these aircraft and warships were en route to an unidentified location in the Western Pacific to “conduct joint sea and air training with the Shandong aircraft carrier.”
It said the vessel, one of two operational aircraft carriers in the Chinese fleet, was about 60 nautical miles (equivalent to about 111km) southeast of the island’s southernmost point and travelling into the Western Pacific.
Japan also observed Chinese vessels transiting the Miyako Strait en route to the region.
China has not issued an official statement regarding any military exercises taking place in the region.
In recent months, the United States and its allies have increased “freedom of navigation” traverses of both the Taiwan Strait and the contested South China Sea to demonstrate that both waterways are international.
China has increased its military operations around Taiwan, condemning what it calls “collusion” between self-proclaimed Taiwan independence forces and the United States.
Taiwan Foreign Minister Rebukes Elon Musk Over China Comments
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Rebukes Elon Musk Over China Comments

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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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