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Philippines Moving Ties Away from China in Favor of United States

Philippines Moving Ties Away from China in Favor of United States

As Covid-19 ravishes the Philippines and China pushes deeper into the South China sea the Philippines is increasing ties with the United States. After years of shifting closer to China, President Rodrigo Duterte appears to be leaning back toward the US.

Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, President Rodrigo Duterte gave his most forceful defence yet of the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s 2016 ruling in favour of the Philippines that said China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea breached international law.

He said the decision “is now part of international law, beyond compromise and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish or abandon.”

“We firmly reject attempts to undermine it,” Duterte said, without naming China. “We welcome the increasing number of states that have come in support of the award and what it stands for — the triumph of reason over rashness, of law over disorder, of amity over ambition.”

Duterte had resisted raising the tribunal ruling after he took power in 2016, embracing closer ties with China while announcing a “separation” from the US — his country’s biggest military ally for decades. But in recent months his government has started to shift back toward the U.S. Which remains widely popular among Filipinos, as China has increased assertiveness in the South China Sea and the Philippine economy suffers due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

China pushing the boundaries in South China Sea

There’s now “more space for those critical of China to be heard and to have influence,” said Malcolm Cook, visiting senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and coordinator of its Philippines project. Adding that officials known to be more hawkish on China have stepped to the fore while Duterte has dialed back on anti-US rhetoric.

“The weights on the balance of Philippine foreign policy for good relations with the US and good relations with China have shifted this year in favour of the Unites States.”

In June, the Philippines suspended its decision to end a 22-year old agreement that facilitates joint military exercises with the United States. While starting to increase criticism of China’s moves in disputed waters. Duterte this month pardoned a U.S. marine found guilty in 2015 of killing a transgender Filipina.

This week the Philippines welcomed the US and other nations to play a role in maintaining security in the South China Sea. Above all following a similar statement from Vietnam earlier this month. China has accused the US of intervening in territorial disputes and called it “the biggest driver of militarization of the South China Sea.”

“I can swear to you, Western powers will be in the South China Sea,” Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin told lawmakers in a hearing in Manila on Monday. “We believe in the balance of power, that the freedom of the Filipino people depends on the balance of power in the South China Sea.”

United States alliance with the Philippines

Philippine officials have framed the recent moves as a reflection of the country’s independent foreign policy more than siding with one particular camp. The United States alliance with the Philippines is its oldest in the region. With a mutual defence treaty signed in 1951. Stipulating that either nation will respond militarily in the event of an attack on the other.

Duterte will “maintain friendly relations with everyone and make no enemies with anyone,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque told Bloomberg. Adding that investment and trade ties with China will be pursued.

Earlier this month, Roque told reporters that Duterte may have pardoned the US marine to curry favour in an effort to gain access to covid-19 vaccines.

The quest to secure a vaccine shows that Duterte isn’t abandoning Beijing: He said this month he would prioritize China and Russia in sourcing a Covid-19 vaccine over Western drug makers. Which require cash advances in exchange for supplies. The Philippines has been hit with the most infections in Southeast Asia. With more than 291,000 known cases, and its economy is projected to fall by as much as 6.6% this year.

Pressure from China in the South China Sea

Duterte is “hedging his bets more at a time when he wants to keep several options open for access to vaccine and the Philippines is coming under more pressure from China in the South China Sea,” said Peter Mumford, Southeast & South Asia practice head at risk consultancy Eurasia Group. “Duterte is ideologically more drawn to China than he is the US, but his foreign policy is also driven by political and economic pragmatism.”

For University of the Philippines political science professor Herman Kraft, Duterte is still cautious about taking concrete steps against China — proof of which was his decision to allow Chinese companies to continue projects. “We’re critical of China as far as their actions in the South China Sea is concerned, but at the same time, we are not taking actions that go beyond the protests,” Kraft said.

Given China’s recent posturing in the dispute sea, it remains a difficult task for Duterte to convince stakeholders it doesn’t pose a national security threat to the Philippines, said Rommel Ong, retired rear admiral in the Philippine Navy and professor at Ateneo de Manila University’s school of government.

In recent months, the Philippines has accused Beijing of surveying waters claimed by both countries, using its coast guard to seize fishing equipment near a disputed shoal, announcing new coral reef research facilities and pointing a laser gun at a Philippine Navy ship. What’s more, China’s promise of billions of dollars for infrastructure hasn’t materialized.

“If China had fulfilled its investment promises and [been] less aggressive in its actions in the South China Sea, the president would be in a better position to convince the various domestic stakeholders to align with his pro-China stance,” Ong said.

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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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