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Extreme PM2.5 Air Pollution in Northern Thailand Hinders Tourism

The extreme air pollution has not only caused a health risk to people of northern Thailand, but it has also harmed the country’s tourism industry. Concerned parties have encouraged the government to devise long-term solutions to the problem, including pushing for the approval of a “clean air” bill, which is currently being debated in parliament.

The choking PM2.5 pollution in northern Thailand, especially Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, has fueled locals’ hopes that the administration formed after the May 14 general election will address the problem, which is mostly caused by slash-and-burn agriculture and man-made forest fires.

According to the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Gistda), Suomi NPP satellite images, northern Thailand’s neighbour, Myanmar, had the most hotspots with 275,000 from January to this month, followed by Laos with 220,000, Northern Thailand with 154,000, and Cambodia with 100,700.

Chiang Mai had the largest number (12,000) in northern Thailand over the four-month period, with more than 150,000 Rai of land damaged by wildfires. While Chiang Rai has had the most flames in the last 20 years.

northern thailand air quality

Wildfires in northern Thailand

Approximately 6,900 wildfires were discovered in forest reserves, while 4,500 were discovered in national forest park regions, causing PM2.5 levels to surpass statutory safety thresholds for more than 70 days and an air quality index (AQI) level to worsen for extended periods in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

From March until recently, PM2.5 levels and rising AQI in the northern province were among the worst in the world. On certain days, PM2.5 levels approached 800-900 microgrammes per cubic metre (g/m3), above the World Health Organization’s recommended guideline of 50 g/m3.

This prompted officials to advise inhabitants to work from home in order to minimize the effects of growing air pollution and to increase assistance to areas affected by the haze issue.

The extreme hazardous air pollution, according to La-iad Bungsrithong, consultant to the Thai Hotels Association’s branch in northern Thailand, is also impacting the local economy, particularly the hotel business.

During Songkran, activities and promotional efforts were launched to bring tourists to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, but the hazy pollution discouraged many, she added.

It was expected that 65% of Chiang Mai’s more than 50,000 hotel rooms would be booked, but just 40% were, according to her.

PM2.5 Air Pollution Dust

Hotel Cancellations due to air pollution

She also stated that lodging reservations were generally cancelled by Thai tourists owing to the PM2.5 issue, since they preferred to travel to beach destinations. According to her, several visitors to Chiang Mai only stayed for a few days.

“The month of April is the low season for tourism in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.” Songkran is the only major festival that may draw tourists. However, the PM2.5 issue is a hurdle, causing Chiang Mai to lose revenue,” she explained.

“Several hotels and other types of lodging in Chiang Mai have installed air purifiers to protect customers from the impact of PM2.5, which increases their operating costs,” she said.

“PM2.5 toxic air pollution is a major national problem that necessitates collaboration from all agencies involved.” People are also demanding for the clean air law to be passed quickly in order to solve the problem,” she said.

Mr. Phunat Thanalaopanich, head of the Thai Hotels Association’s Chapter in Northern Thailand, stated that the government and business operators collaborated to organise activities and promotions to attract tourists during Songkran this year in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.

Songkran celebrations had previously been halted across the country owing to Covid-19.

“Everyone expected more tourist arrivals this year because a wide range of activities were planned following Covid.” However, due to air pollution, the number of tourists plummeted by 30%,” he said. According to him, the haze pollution is so severe that it is now affecting tourist and hotel businesses.

 

PM2.5 Air Pollution Drives Away Tourists in Northern Thailand

Attracting Tourists

Meanwhile, Ms. Suladda Sarutilavan, director of the Tourism Authority of Northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai office, stated that government agencies and the private sector collaborated to promote local tourism ahead of the low season.

However, just 41,254 tourists arrived at Chiang Mai airport between April 13 and 16. She stated that 30,918 were domestic travellers and the rest were overseas arrivals.

The number of Chinese visitors was 2,838, followed by 2,578 Thais, 1,084 South Koreans, 632 Taiwanese, and 518 Americans. Northern Thailand suffers from severe air pollution, particularly in urban areas. Vehicle emissions, industrial operations, and agricultural waste burning are the primary sources of air pollution in the region.

In Chiang Mai, the largest city in northern Thailand, air pollution levels often exceed World Health Organisation (WHO) acceptable norms. Pollution can have serious consequences for public health, such as respiratory difficulties, heart disease, and cancer.

Government controls on emissions and initiatives to promote the use of cleaner technologies in industry and transportation are among the measures being taken to combat air pollution in northern Thailand. Furthermore, public awareness programmes and community-led initiatives to prevent agricultural waste burning have been implemented.

However, the problem remains serious, and continuous efforts are required to address the underlying causes of air pollution and reduce its effects on public health and the environment.

The haze problem in northern Thailand is a reoccurring concern, especially during the dry season, which lasts from February to April. Agricultural burning, forest fires, and industrial pollutants are the primary causes of the haze.

Farmers in the region frequently use fire to clear their fields after harvesting crops, adding to the smog. Furthermore, both natural and man-made forest fires contribute to the situation. Industrial pollution from nearby manufacturers and power plants can also worsen the haze.

The haze can have serious consequences for public health, such as respiratory difficulties and eye irritation. It can also harm the ecosystem by destroying forests and wildlife habitats.

Government restrictions and measures to encourage farmers to adopt more sustainable farming practices are among the efforts being made to combat the haze problem. However, the issue remains a substantial concern, and continuous efforts are required to address the problem’s core causes and alleviate its consequences.

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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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