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Blinken And Xi Agreed To “stabilize” Deteriorating US-China Relations After Meeting

(CTN NEWS) – As both sides agreed that it was necessary to “stabilize” the bilateral relationship between the two countries.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Monday that the US and China had made “progress” towards getting their relationship back on track.

There are significant issues between the countries that have not been resolved, but the top US diplomat noted that he “hopes and expects we will have better communications, better engagement going forward” after two days of meetings with senior officials in Beijing, including President Xi Jinping.

As the first US secretary of state to visit Beijing in five years.

Blinken’s discussions with senior Chinese officials were viewed as a crucial litmus test for whether the two governments could prevent relations from further deteriorating at a time of persistent mistrust.

Both sides Recognize The Importance Of Stabilizing Their Relationship

At a news conference on Monday in the Chinese capital, Blinken stated, “It was clear coming in that the relationship was at a point of instability.” And both sides agreed that efforts to stabilise it were necessary.

“I came to Beijing to strengthen high-level channels of communication, to make our positions and intentions clear in areas of disagreement.

And to explore areas where we might work together on our interests, align on shared transnational challenges, and we did all that,” Blinken said.

We won’t always reach an agreement between us, he remarked, but we have made progress and are moving forward in a number of areas under the conditions we set for this trip.

“However, I want to emphasise once more that none of this is settled in a single visit, one outing, or one talk. According to the top US diplomat, it’s a process.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday that President Joe Biden was “closely monitoring” Blinken’s travel and that the US president was “updated regularly” by his national security team.

Military-to-military Communications Have Not Progressed Immediately

Restoring military-to-military communications between the US and China was one of the major challenges that was left unresolved.

The nation’s top military leaders continue to have no contact with one another, and two recent events have sparked worries that their tense relationship may break down into violence.

Despite speaking briefly, China recently declined a meeting between Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and the country’s sanctioned Defence Minister Li Shangfu in Singapore.

Despite “repeatedly” bringing up the necessity for such channels of communication in his talks, Blinken claimed there had been “no immediate progress.”

“China has not yet indicated that it is willing to go with it. We need to continue addressing that problem, in my opinion. It is crucial that we open those lines again, he said.

On Monday, Yang Tao, director-general of the North American and Oceanian Affairs division of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, attributed the protracted standoff to Li’s exposure to sanctions.

He told reporters, “The US needs to remove the barrier first.”

Top U.S. Diplomats Discuss Economic Issues

The top US diplomat said that the topics of their conversations included North Korea and the conflict in Ukraine.

He also said that they discussed concerns that the US had “shared by a growing number of countries about the (People’s Republic of China’s) provocative actions to the Taiwan Strait, as well as in the South and East China Seas.” In addition to pressing China on human rights, he claimed that the US position on Taiwan had not changed.

The top US ambassador also repeatedly emphasised that, when meeting with senior Chinese officials, he tried to make clear the US’ economic policy towards China and stress that it is not the US’ intention to “contain” China economically.

Between “de-risking” and “decoupling,” he argued, “there is a profound difference for the United States, and for many other countries.”

“We support diversification and risk reduction. That entails making investments in our own capabilities and secure, robust supply chains.

Promoting equal opportunity for our employees and our businesses, combating unfair trade practises, and safeguarding our vital technology so that they aren’t turned against us, according to him.

Yang, however, disagreed, telling reporters that if the US is just repackaging “decoupling” as “de-risking” from China, the approach is “turning away from stability and opportunity.”

“We have not seen any evidence that contradicts that,” Blinken said, adding that China had guaranteed the US and other nations that it would not give Russia deadly assistance.

He also pointed out that China’s assurance was consistent with other remarks it had made in recent weeks.

“However, we continue to be concerned about Chinese businesses, which may be supplying Russia with technology to further its aggression in Ukraine. And we’ve urged the Chinese authorities to watch out for that, said Blinken.

Blinken claimed that he brought up issues related to human rights, such as those in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, in his encounters. He added that he “specifically raised US citizens wrongfully detained and those facing exit bans.”

According to the top US diplomat, the two sides “agreed to explore setting up a working group effort so that we can shut off the flow of precursor chemicals” for fentanyl.

This was one of the areas of prospective cooperation. One of the leading producers of the precursor chemicals needed to make the extremely lethal synthetic drug that has killed thousands of people is China.

Meeting Between Blinken And Xi Ends Days Of Uncertainty

The top US ambassador called his discussions with senior Chinese officials Wang Yi and Qin Gang “candid, substantive, and constructive,” and he called his meeting with the Chinese president “important.”

The tense US-China ties were further underscored by the fact that Xi and Blinken’s meeting was not officially announced until just before it took place and if they would meet during the two-day visit.

Washington would have viewed the lack of a face-to-face encounter as an insult and a break from the numerous prior trips by senior American diplomats.

The US only made the public announcement of the meeting an hour or so before it began, and it took place in Beijing’s vast Great Hall of the People.

According to a State Department representative, it lasted around 30 minutes, starting at 4:34 p.m. local time and ending at 5:09 p.m.

According to a Chinese account of the conversation, Xi told Blinken that the world needs an all-around solid Sino-US relationship and that the future and destiny of humanity depend on how well China and the United States get along.

China will not challenge or take the place of the United States because it respects American interests.

Similar to how China must be respected, the United States must similarly uphold China’s legitimate rights and interests, said Xi.

According to the readout, Xi informed Blinken that the future of humanity depends on China and the US having healthy relations.

The two superpowers have been at odds more and more recently over a variety of problems, from Beijing’s tight ties to Moscow to American attempts to restrict the sale of cutting-edge technologies to China.

Relationships between the two countries reached a new low earlier this year as a result of a Chinese spy balloon that was discovered flying across the US and passing over critical military locations before being shot down by an American fighter plane.

As a result, Blinken cancelled a previous trip to Beijing.

The diplomatic mission succeeded this time around.

China Blames The United States For Its Declining Relations

An approximately three-hour conversation between Blinken and Wang earlier on Monday highlighted the significant difficulties in resolving the tension and mistrust that have come to define the relationship.

The US has recently been forced to reevaluate how it maintains its interactions with the power as a result of the Chinese government’s expanding influence worldwide and increasingly authoritarian rules at home.

According to a readout from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Wang reiterated Beijing’s standard rhetoric and demanded that the US stop “suppressing” China’s technological advancement and exaggerating the “China threat” as the “root cause” of the two countries’ deteriorating relations.

Blinken’s visit occurred at “a critical juncture in US-China relations, where a choice needs to be made between dialogue or confrontation, cooperation or conflict,” Wang said.

“We must reverse the downward spiral of China-US relations, promote a return to a healthy and stable track, and jointly find the right way for China and the United States to co-exist in the new era.”

Wang emphasised once more that Taiwan is one of China’s “core interests” and that there is “no room for compromise or backdown” in this regard. balloon

The self-governing democratic island, which China’s Communist Party claims but has never taken control of, has grown to be yet another cause of contention between the two countries

Despite Their ‘profound differences,’ Both Sides Agree To Advance Dialogue

The overall tone of Wang’s remarks was more confrontational than that of Qin, the Chinese foreign minister, who had met with Blinken the day before.

According to a readout from Beijing, Qin stated that both parties had agreed to “advance dialogue, exchanges, and cooperation” and “maintain high-level interactions.”

Blinken and Qin’s lengthy, over five-hour discussion on Sunday was successful “on a number of fronts,” with both parties demonstrating a “desire to reduce tensions,” a senior State Department official told reporters.

However, the official added, “profound differences” between the US and China were also evident throughout the discussion.

While Wang controls the nation’s foreign policy due to his position among the party’s central leadership, Qin has the title of Foreign Minister but has less authority than Wang.

As a follow-up to a cordial face-to-face between Biden and China’s Xi on the sidelines of the G20 in Bali in November, Blinken’s initial scheduled visit in early February had been established.

That meeting, the first in person between the two presidents, was viewed as a crucial step in reopening certain channels of contact that Beijing cut down last year after Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the US House, visited Taiwan.

Both the US and China had downplayed hopes for a significant achievement during Blinken’s visit.

Washington took pains to downplay expectations prior to the meeting, with a senior State Department official telling reporters last week that he does not expect “a long list of deliverables.”

Both parties are also figuring out how the meetings would appear to their respective domestic audiences in the meantime.

How aggressively to oppose China has become a contentious political issue in the US, with some senators criticising the Biden administration for holding talks with Beijing.

China believes that Washington is actively attempting to obstruct its development, and it is well aware that the US is about to enter a presidential election season, during which time harsh rhetoric against it might become more strident.

Its representatives also meet with Blinken in a setting where China’s official discourse and state media have long characterised the United States as a bad actor who is to blame for strained relations.

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News

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

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

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

News

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli, To repay $6.4 Million

Washington — The Supreme Court rejected Martin Shkreli’s appeal on Monday, after he was branded “Pharma Bro” for raising the price of a lifesaving prescription.

Martin appealed a decision to repay $64.6 million in profits he and his former company earned after monopolizing the pharmaceutical market and dramatically raising its price. His lawyers claimed the money went to his company rather than him personally.

The justices did not explain their reasoning, as is customary, and there were no notable dissents.

Prosecutors, conversely, claimed that the firm had promised to pay $40 million in a settlement and that because Martin orchestrated the plan, he should be held accountable for returning profits.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Martin was also forced to forfeit the Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” which has been dubbed the world’s rarest musical album. The multiplatinum hip-hop group auctioned off a single copy of the record in 2015, stipulating that it not be used commercially.

Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and defrauding them of millions of dollars in two unsuccessful hedge funds he managed. Shkreli was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals (later Vyera), which hiked the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill after acquiring exclusive rights to the decades-old medicine in 2015. It cures a rare parasite condition that affects pregnant women, cancer patients, and HIV patients.

shkreli

He defended the choice as an example of capitalism in action, claiming that insurance and other programs ensured that those in need of Daraprim would eventually receive it. However, the move prompted criticism, from the medical community to Congress.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Attorney Thomas Huff said the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling was upsetting, but the high court could still overturn a lower court judgment that allowed the $64 million penalty order even though Shkreli had not personally received the money.

“If and when the Supreme Court does so, Mr. Shkreli will have a strong argument for modifying the order accordingly,” he told reporters.

Shkreli was freed from prison in 2022 after serving most of his seven-year sentence.

SOURCE | AP