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Azerbaijan Launches “Anti-Terrorist Operation” In Nagorno-Karabakh Following Fatal Landmine Incidents

Azerbaijan

(CTN NEWS) – Azerbaijan has deployed troops supported by artillery strikes into the Armenian-administered Nagorno-Karabakh region, asserting that their military operation will persist until Armenian forces capitulate.

These actions on Tuesday have heightened the prospect of a fresh conflict in the ethnically Armenian area within Azerbaijan, a longstanding source of tension since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

While internationally recognized as Azerbaijani territory, a portion of it is under the control of separatist Armenian authorities who claim the region, home to roughly 120,000 residents, as their ancestral homeland.

Anti-Terrorist Operation

Following the deaths of four soldiers and two civilians in landmine incidents, which Azerbaijan attributed to Armenian saboteurs, Baku initiated what it referred to as an “anti-terrorist operation.”

Azerbaijan’s defense ministry stated that the operation’s objectives were to “disarm and ensure the withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from our territories” while neutralizing their military infrastructure.

During this offensive on Tuesday, Azerbaijani forces reportedly seized over 60 military outposts and eliminated approximately 20 military vehicles and other equipment, according to the ministry’s statement.

Armenia’s foreign ministry condemned these attacks and accused Azerbaijan of launching “another large-scale aggression against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, with the aim of furthering its policy of ethnic cleansing.”

The exact number of casualties resulting from this military offensive remained unclear at the time.

A separatist Armenian human rights official in Nagorno-Karabakh claimed that 25 individuals, including two civilians, had been killed, but this assertion could not be independently verified.

Hikmet Hajiyev, the foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, informed Al Jazeera that Baku had initiated “local but limited counter-terrorism measures” targeting military objectives.

He asserted that while Baku was employing high-precision weaponry, it was challenging to entirely avoid “collateral damage” due to the presence of civilians being used as “human shields” in the disputed region.

“We urge all civilians to maintain a safe distance from military targets,” he emphasized.

Azerbaijan Vows to Continue Operation in Nagorno-Karabakh Unless Armenian Units Surrender

The state news agency quoted the presidential administration, affirming that Azerbaijan would persist with the operation “until the end” unless “Armenian military units” surrendered and relinquished their arms.

Nagorno-Karabakh, along with substantial surrounding territories, came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces with support from the Armenian military at the conclusion of a separatist war in 1994.

Azerbaijan regained control over these territories and parts of Nagorno-Karabakh itself during the 2020 conflict.

Armenia, which asserted that its armed forces were not present in Karabakh and that the situation along its border with Azerbaijan remained stable, called upon members of the UN Security Council to intervene and urged Russian peacekeepers, deployed since the previous conflict in 2020, to take action.

In the Armenian capital, Yerevan, demonstrators gathered to express their disapproval of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s management of the Karabakh crisis and to demand his resignation.

These protests erupted following Pashinyan’s condemnation of calls for a “coup” as Azerbaijan initiated its military operation. Pashinyan had been seen as too pro-Western by Russia, Armenia’s traditional supporter.

Armenia’s security council cautioned of a “real danger of widespread unrest in the Republic of Armenia” in the wake of the turmoil.

Russia’s Efforts to Mediate Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Renewal Talks

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov disclosed that Russia had reached out to both parties, urging them to resume negotiations.

Russia, currently involved in a conflict with neighboring Ukraine, is aiming to maintain its influence in the region amidst growing Turkish involvement in support of Azerbaijan.

Turkey’s foreign ministry defended Baku’s actions, asserting that Azerbaijan had been compelled to take measures within its sovereign territory in Nagorno-Karabakh due to unaddressed concerns following the 2020 conflict with Armenia.

The possibility of Russia mediating a renewed ceasefire remains uncertain. Such an effort could potentially entail a significant political cost for the Armenian government, according to Marie Dumoulin, director of the Wider Europe Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Russian peacekeeping troops deployed in the disputed region after the 2020 ceasefire have been unable to prevent Azerbaijani military actions since then.

Their operations were largely obstructed since December, with Azerbaijan alleging that Armenians were smuggling weapons and engaging in illicit resource extraction.

Armenia, on the other hand, claimed that Azerbaijan imposed a blockade on the region, resulting in severe food shortages, and accused Azerbaijan of attempting a starvation-based genocide.

Armenia has accused Moscow of being too preoccupied with its conflict in Ukraine to provide adequate protection and claimed that Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh were failing in their duties.

International Response to Escalation in Nagorno-Karabakh Crisis

The United States has declared its commitment to crisis diplomacy in response to what it perceives as a highly perilous escalation of the situation.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to become actively involved in the next 24 hours to help de-escalate the crisis, as indicated by U.S. officials.

The European Union, France, and Germany have condemned Azerbaijan’s military actions and have called for a resumption of discussions regarding the region’s future.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, emphasized that Brussels remained fully engaged in facilitating dialogue and cautioned against exploiting this military escalation as a pretext to force the local population to leave.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for an immediate return to discussions to seek a just and enduring peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, urging an immediate halt to the offensive.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed disappointment that Azerbaijan had broken its commitment to avoid military action in Nagorno-Karabakh.

She called on Azerbaijan to cease shelling immediately and return to the negotiation table. Baerbock made these remarks while attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

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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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