Connect with us

News

Death Toll from Morocco’s Strong Ever Earthquake Surpasses 2000

The death toll from Morocco’s strong earthquake has grown to 2,012, according to state television, citing the Interior Ministry. The magnitude 6.8 quake in the High Atlas mountains late Friday night injured around 2,059 people, according to the report.

The largest earthquake in the north African kingdom’s history wreaked significant damage and drove panicked inhabitants and tourists fleeing to safety in the middle of the night.

The earthquake struck a hilly area 72 km southwest of Marrakesh around 11:11 p.m. local time on Friday, according to the US Geological Survey. Strong earthquakes were also detected in Rabat, Casablanca, and Essaouira on the Moroccan coast.

“I was nearly asleep when I heard the doors and shutters banging,” said Ghannou Najem, an elderly Casablanca resident who was visiting Marrakesh at the time of the earthquake.

“I rushed outdoors in a panic. “I was afraid I was going to die alone.”

According to one researcher, the quake was the “biggest in more than 120 years” in the north African region.

“Where damaging earthquakes are uncommon, structures are just not built firmly enough… “There are so many collapses, resulting in high casualties,” said Bill McGuire, emeritus professor at University College London.

According to Interior Ministry estimates, more nearly half of the known deaths have occurred in the provinces of Al-Haouz, the epicentre, and Taroudant.

The government also reported deaths in the provinces of Ouarzazate, Chichaoua, Azilal, and Youssoufia, as well as Marrakesh, Agadir, and the Casablanca area. According to the ministry, at least 205 of the injured are in critical condition.

Death Toll from Morocco's Strong Ever Earthquake Surpasses 2000

Engineer Faisal Baddour said he felt the tremor three times in his building. “There are families who are still sleeping outside because we were so scared of the force of this earthquake,” he explained. “It was almost as if a train was passing close to our houses.”

Frenchman Michael Bizet, 43, who owns three traditional riad houses in Marrakesh’s old town, told CNN he was in bed when the earthquake struck.

“I was afraid my bed was going to fly away.” I went out onto the street half-naked and went straight to my riads. “It was complete chaos, a real disaster, madness,” he claimed.

Bizet posted a video showing rubble from crumbled walls in the streets.

Another video on social media showed a section of a minaret collapsing in the historic city’s Jemaa el-Fna square.

Hundreds of people flocked to the area to spend the night in dread of aftershocks, according to an AFP correspondent, some with blankets and others sleeping on the ground.

Death Toll from Morocco's Strong Ever Earthquake Surpasses 2000

Mimi Theobold, 25, an English tourist, said she was on a restaurant terrace with companions when the tables began to shake and plates flew.

Local neighbour Houda Outassaf claimed she is “still in shock” after feeling the earth shake beneath her feet and losing relatives.

“At least ten members of my family have died… “I can’t believe it, because I was just with them two days ago,” she remarked.

Another Marrakesh resident, Fayssal Badour, said that the earthquake struck when he was driving. “I came to a halt and understood what a disaster it was… “The screaming and crying was excruciating,” he claimed.

According to the interior ministry, officials have “mobilised all necessary resources to intervene and assist the affected areas.” The regional blood transfusion clinic in Marrakesh has asked citizens to give blood for the injured.

A family was caught in the wreckage after their house fell in the village of Al-Haouz, near the epicentre of the earthquake, according to local media.

“We heard screams at the time of the tremor,” an Essaouira resident, 200 km west of Marrakesh, told AFP. “Pieces of facades have fallen.”

The USGS Pager system, which offers preliminary seismic impact assessments, issued a “red alert” for economic losses, indicating that substantial damage is likely.

Death Toll from Morocco's Strong Ever Earthquake Surpasses 2000

Foreign leaders expressed their sorrow, and several offered help.

In a statement, US President Joe Biden said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation.”

According to Chinese official media, Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed “deep grief for the victims” and hoped that “the Moroccan government and people will be able to overcome the impact of this disaster.”

Pope Francis expressed “his profound solidarity with those who are touched in the flesh and heart by this tragedy.”

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister who established diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2020, has ordered “any necessary assistance.”

The earthquake was also felt in nearby Algeria, but no damage or casualties were reported, according to the Algerian Civil Defence.

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Al Hoceima in northwestern Morocco in 2004, killing at least 628 people and injuring 926 more, and a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in Agadir killed almost 12,000 people in 1960.

Algeria, which severed ties with Morocco two years ago, announced on Saturday that it would allow humanitarian and medical flights to Morocco.

Algeria severed diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, alleging “hostile acts.” Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune stated earlier this year that relations between the two North African neighbours had reached a “no-return zone.”

Algeria’s president said in a statement on Morocco’s earthquake that it was ready to provide humanitarian relief and offer all of its material and human capacities in solidarity with “the brotherly Moroccan people” if Morocco requested it.

News

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

Continue Reading

News

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

Continue Reading

News

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

SEE ALSO:

Could Last-Minute Surprises Derail Kamala Harris’ Campaign? “Nostradamus” Explains the US Poll.

Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

US Inflation will Comfort a Fed Focused on Labor Markets.

Continue Reading

Trending