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California, Nevada and Arizona Brace for 105MPH Winds from Hurricane Hilary

Southern California residents are ready for a once-in-a-lifetime tropical storm landfall. Meteorologists warn that the effects of Hurricane Hilary will be severely disruptive, devastating, and hazardous. Massive amounts of rain, in some locations more than would ordinarily fall in a year, can cause massive flash flooding.

AccuWeather meteorologists are concerned that a potentially fatal flooding disaster may occur in portions of the desert areas east of the mountains in Southern California, southern Nevada, and western Arizona.

Hurricane Hilary likely peaked as a devastating Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph Thursday night, several hundred miles southwest of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. Hilary was roughly 1,000 miles south-southeast of Los Angeles as of early Friday evening, with peak sustained winds of 130 mph.

The tropical system will most likely make landfall in Southern California as a tropical storm between San Diego and Los Angeles late Sunday night to early Monday morning. The sustained winds of a tropical cyclone range from 39 to 73 miles per hour. During a tropical storm, however, hurricane-force gusts of 100 mph or higher are possible. A tropical storm made landfall in Southern California 84 years ago, in Long Beach, in 1939.

For the first time in the local office’s history, the National Weather Service in San Diego issued a Tropical Storm Watch on Friday morning.

“The impact from Hurricane Hilary has the potential to be an extraordinary event, one that is rare and unprecedented,” said AccuWeather Director of Forecasting Operations Dan DePodwin.

“There will be some fluctuation in strength with Hilary into Saturday,” AccuWeather Tropical Meteorologist Alex DaSilva said. “However, peak winds will steadily decline as the hurricane moves over progressively cooler water this weekend through early Monday.”

This time of year, water temperatures off the coast of Southern California are comparable to those near Atlantic Canada.

Despite a downward wind trend, the hurricane will track near to Mexico’s western coast, delivering severe wind gusts, pounding waves, coastal flooding, and erosion. Torrential rain with an AccuWeather Local StormMaxTM of 20 inches may cause life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides in this section of Mexico.

Hurricane Hilary

Hurricane Hilary has received a 2 on the AccuWeather RealImpactTM Scale for Tropical Cyclones due to the effects of heavy rain and strong winds in Mexico. AccuWeather Local StormMaxTM wind gusts of 110 mph are expected in Mexico.

Massive seas will pose a severe risk to vessels in the area. Forecasters strongly advise small craft to stay in port.

This weekend, large seas will build up around the Southern California coast, posing hazards to small ships and swimmers alike. Waterspouts and tornadoes are also probable.
From California to Nevada, there is a high potential of extreme rainfall, flash flooding, and infrastructure damage.

Even though Hurricane Hilary will not be a wind powerhouse for the United States, torrential downpours and the possibility of record rainfall will pose a significant risk to life and property.

According to DePodwin, coastal flooding can occur from Los Angeles to San Diego, accompanied with gusty gusts that can blow down trees, cause power outages, and cause modest property damage.

AccuWeather meteorologists issued a warning earlier this week for devastating and life-threatening flash flooding in Southern California and other portions of the southwestern United States in advance of Hurricane Hilary’s potentially historic rains this weekend through early next week.

From Southern California to Nevada and western Arizona, the worst weather will be from Sunday night until Monday morning. However, the region’s first downpours will move northward late Saturday and Saturday night.

The National Weather Service issued a high danger of extreme rainfall for Southern California’s low deserts to the eastern slopes of the mountains on Friday morning. This is the first time the NWS has issued such an advisory in the area in at least 13 years. Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley in California are among the high-risk areas.

This storm has the ability to dump an entire year’s worth of rain on Palm Springs in 24-48 hours. The arid town’s yearly rainfall average is slightly more than 5 inches.

Hurricane Hilary

A general 2-4 inches of rain is expected, with a foot or more possible in the heaviest areas of Southern California and west-central Nevada. A significant amount of rain will fall in less than 12 hours. The AccuWeather Local StormMaxTM rainfall forecast is 20 inches.

In addition to Palm Springs, torrential rain and flooding are anticipated from Hurricane Hilary in other desert cities and parks, including Las Vegas and Death Valley, which could turn into a large lake. The heaviest rain and severe flooding are forecast to continue well west of Phoenix, but flash flooding is possible in metro areas along the Colorado River basin.

The area’s infrastructure may be unable to handle the historic rainfall amounts.

“Across interior Southern California, road and rail line closures due to major flooding, washouts, and mudslides are likely, putting a significant strain on infrastructure,” added DePodwin.

Some major highways and rail networks may be damaged to the point of being closed for a lengthy period of time after the storm.

The amount of the flooding is expected to decrease significantly to the east and west of Hilary as it moves inland as a tropical rainstorm along a restricted track.

However, heavy rain and isolated flooding may spread as far north as Idaho next week, according to AccuWeather Long-Range Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham. Thunderstorms that explode on the outskirts of the rain zone have the potential to start fresh wildfires.
Tropical storm warnings are in effect from San Diego to Los Angeles.

While the mountains just inland will protect Southern California’s coastal districts from the greatest rain, downpours may cause localised flash floods in metro areas from San Diego to Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. August is often a bone-dry month along much of Southern California’s coast.

Hurricane HilaryThe worst of Hurricane Hilary’s conditions, with difficult and risky travel, will worsen on Sunday and last until at least Monday morning. Some roadways may be flooded as a result of severe rain and ocean overwash, or they may be obstructed by fallen trees and power wires.

Wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph are likely in coastal areas, while gusts of 60 to 80 mph are likely over the ridges and through some canyons.

Drivers could expect road closures and ground stops at surrounding airports. Large waves, severe winds, and vast offshore seas may also cause seaports to close for an extended period of time.

This weekend, all three Major League Baseball teams in Southern California (the Padres, Dodgers, and Angels) play at home, and all three may have rainouts. In the last 20 years, the Padres have only experienced three rainouts at Petco Park.
Hilary could have a significant impact on California’s agricultural region.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, California produces almost two-thirds of the fruits and one-third of the vegetables produced in the United States.

Hurricane Hilary

July through October are the busiest harvest months of the year, especially in the San Joaquin Valley, which produces the majority of the vegetables.

“A cool, wet spring has pushed the harvest of many crops behind schedule,” AccuWeather Agricultural Meteorologist Dale Mohler explained. “Fresh fruits and vegetables may be susceptible to mould and spoilage as a result of the storm’s excessive rain and further delays in harvesting.” Cotton may become discoloured, resulting in lower yields. Winds can cause almonds to fall to the ground, where they can mould or rot owing to the impending rain.”

On a more positive note, the harvest delay may prevent a calamity in the sultana sector.

“All U.S. raisins are grown within a 75-mile radius of Fresno, California,” Mohler explained. “Growers may simply postpone the already delayed harvest, which is just getting underway, until after Hilary’s rains have passed.”

If a significant number of highways and trains in Southern California are damaged, shipping of crops and other items from California to other parts of the United States may be delayed further.

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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.

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