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Tourists Warned to Stay Indoors as Europe Experiences Heat Wave

Officials issued a warning to locals and visitors flocking to European hotspots on Tuesday, advising them to stay indoors during the hottest hours as the region experiences a record heat wave as wildfires rage in Greece, Spain, and Switzerland.

Red Cross teams in Portugal used social media to warn people not to leave their dogs or young children in parked cars, while civil protection officers in Italy kept an eye out for anyone who were struggling from the heat in central Rome’s crowds. Volunteers distributed water to the needy in Greece, and in Spain they warned people to avoid breathing in fire smoke.

Panu Saaristo, the emergency health team leader for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, stated during a briefing in Geneva that “heat waves are really an invisible killer.” “Every summer here in Europe, the temperatures get hotter and hotter for longer periods of time.”

The recent heat wave is anticipated to last for days in a number of southern European countries. According to the U.N. meteorological service, climate change-amped temperatures in Europe might surpass the 48.8-degree Celsius (119.8-degree Fahrenheit) record set in Sicily two years ago.

Civil safety workers distributed reusable water bottles at 28 well-known locations in Rome as worries about a rise in fatalities due to the excessive heat increased. Authorities also urged locals and visitors to utilise the city’s historic center’s numerous public drinking fountains, which are a characteristic feature of the Italian capital.

heat wave europe

Tuesday, Fausto Alberetto, who was travelling to Rome from the Piedmont region of northern Italy, sought several volunteers for assistance in using an app to locate the closest “nasone.” He claimed that prior to his journey, reading about the heat wave did not adequately prepare him for Rome’s actual 41 C (105 F) temperatures.

“We acquired knowledge, and we were ready. Alberetto observed as he strolled past Piazza Venezia in the centre of Rome, “But it is one thing to hear it or read it, it is another thing to feel it. “This place is truly awful.”

According to Giuseppe Napolitano, the director of Rome’s civil protection, volunteers for the organisation found four persons who appeared to be sweltering, but none of them were in critical condition.

Health officials in Cyprus have revealed that a 90-year-old man died over the weekend and six other senior citizens were admitted to the hospital after suffering from heatstroke at home last week when temperatures above 43 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit).

Around the world, heat records are breaking, and according to scientists, there is a good likelihood that 2023 will go down in history as the year with the highest temperatures ever recorded, dating back to the middle of the 19th century.

According to preliminary data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, the world’s average temperature last month may have broken the previous record for June. The World Meteorological Organisation forecast that this summer would set a number of heat records. Unprecedented sea surface temperatures and little Arctic sea ice, according to the U.N. weather bureau, are mostly to blame.

heat wave europe

The world is becoming hotter due to human-caused climate change brought on by the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas, which is intensified by the cyclical El Nino weather phenomena. However, the present El Nino has only been going for a short while, is still weak to moderate, and won’t peak until the winter.

Forecasts indicated that temperatures will remain over 40 C (104 F) not only in the Mediterranean but also in North America, Asia, and North Africa.

“These weather systems are not like the ones in the past. They have arrived as a result of climate change, according to John Nairn, the World Meteorological Organization’s senior expert on high heat. “It is global warming, and it will last for a while.”

Since the 1980s, simultaneous heat waves have multiplied by six, according to Nairn, “and the trend line isn’t changing.”

Scientists predict that 61,000 people died from heat-related causes in Europe last year as a result of the continent’s gruelling summer. The continent sweltered in 2019, when July set a new record for the hottest month on record, with even Arctic settlements experiencing record-breaking heat.

When a mass of hot air rose from Africa in 2018, it sparked forest fires in the Iberian Peninsula, shattering temperature records in Spain and Portugal.

heat wave deaths europe

A catastrophic heat wave in 2003 left a lasting impression on most of Europe that hot weather might be more than just a nuisance.

Around 15,000 heat-related deaths occurred in France, the country hardest hit, many of them involving elderly individuals left in uncooled dwellings and nursing homes. The deaths caused the nation to reevaluate its approach to dealing with severe heat and implement a warning system.

Other nations are taking action to safeguard public assistance during the oppressive summer of 2023.

In order to help employees cope with the extreme heat, Greek authorities this week announced modifications to working hours and the closure of the Acropolis and other historic sites in the afternoon. By the end of the week, areas of central and southern Greece might experience temperatures as high as 44 C (111 F), according to forecasts for a second heat wave that will start on Thursday.

For a second day, three sizable flames raged outside of Athens. After spending the night on beaches, hotels, and public buildings due to a fire that had forced thousands of residents to leave coastal districts south of the city, they finally got back to their homes on Tuesday.

With projections calling for peak temperatures of 43 C (109 F) in places along the Ebro River in the northeast and on the island of Mallorca, the majority of Spain is on high to extreme heat alert. Spain is also experiencing a protracted drought, which has raised worries about the possibility of flames.

Approximately 400 firemen worked to put out a wildfire on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands that had been burning for four days straight with the help of nine water-dumping helicopters. Authorities claimed that despite setting up a perimeter around the fire, it was still burning.

A wildfire that overtook a mountainside in the southwest Wallis region of Switzerland prompted the evacuation of four villages and hamlets, and around 150 firefighters, police, army, and other emergency teams from Switzerland spread out to fight it on Tuesday.

The 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.8 degrees Fahrenheit) temperature recorded on August 11, 2021, in Sicily, was confirmed as the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe by an expert committee, according to a study released by the World Meteorological Organisation on Monday. There isn’t currently a complete report available.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

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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.

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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.

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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

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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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