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Gaza Receives Warning: Relocate South Or Face Allegations Of Terrorism Amid Humanitarian Crisis

GAZA

(CTN NEWS) – Gaza residents have received warnings from Israel’s military, cautioning them that if they don’t move south, they risk being identified as accomplices “in a terrorist organization.”

This comes as concerns about a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza persist, with limited aid allowed to enter the region.

Over a million people reside in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and amid relentless air and artillery strikes, many have fled southwards, cramming into temporary refuges.

This mass displacement follows two weeks of a complete Israeli siege on the area.

While some limited supplies of aid arrived on Saturday, relief agencies continue to sound the alarm about an impending humanitarian catastrophe.

Hospitals are running out of fuel to power crucial equipment like incubators.

Israel is preparing for a ground assault and has been bombarding the 45-km (28-mile) strip ever since Hamas militants carried out attacks in Israeli towns on October 7, resulting in the deaths of over 1,400 people and the taking of more than 200 hostages.

The Palestinian Red Crescent’s logistics head in Gaza, Mahmoud Abu al-Atta, noted that truckloads of aid have been handed to specific agencies, including UNICEF and the Qatari Red Crescent.

Some aid is intended for hospitals, while some is designated for UN-managed shelters.

Amid this dire situation, Gaza residents are expressing their desperation.

Mohammad Maher, who fled to the south from Gaza City, lamented the war and the relentless bombing of civilians, emphasizing the need for it to end.

He described the amount of food aid that has arrived as insufficient and accused Israel and the United States of contributing to Palestinian suffering, urging the international community to act.

Fuel Shortage

Starting on Saturday, the Israeli military issued warnings to Gaza residents through leaflets and mobile phone audio messages.

These messages instructed residents in the northern parts of Gaza to move to the south, as staying in the north could put their lives at risk and potentially identify them as accomplices in a “terrorist organization.”

Israeli airstrikes continued overnight, resulting in the deaths of at least 55 Palestinians in Gaza.

This increased the total casualty count since the beginning of the conflict on October 7 to over 4,300.

As Israel prepares for an expected ground incursion into Gaza to target Hamas, which seized power in the territory in 2007, Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi emphasized the intention to destroy Hamas operatives and infrastructure.

This marks a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict.

In addition to the warnings about moving to the south, Israeli airstrikes have destroyed numerous buildings in Gaza, including mosques.

Jabalia refugee camp in the north of the enclave has seen extensive damage to its infrastructure, with at least 30 mosques destroyed in the past two weeks.

These actions have led to growing concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, as the delivery of aid has been limited, and relief agencies are warning of a potential catastrophe, with critical facilities like hospitals facing fuel shortages to power essential equipment.

In southern Gaza, the situation remains dire for those who have sought refuge.

In Khan Younis, a funeral was held for seven members of a family killed in overnight strikes.

Grief-stricken women embraced one another as the bodies were solemnly transported to a burial site and laid to rest, wrapped in white shrouds.

Sunday’s incoming supplies, however, do not include fuel. Israel’s military expressed concerns that Hamas could misuse the fuel, leaving Gaza with a dwindling power supply.

Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry, shared the grave situation, explaining that there were 130 newborn babies in electrically powered incubators.

At al-Shifa Hospital, one of Gaza’s largest, they had nearly depleted their fuel reserves, with the incubators running on the remaining supply.

UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinians, also sounded the alarm, stating that they would exhaust their fuel reserves within three days.

They emphasized the dire consequences of a fuel shortage, warning that it would lead to a lack of water, non-functioning hospitals, and disrupted bakery operations.

Life in Gaza has grown increasingly challenging for its residents.

At a bakery in Khan Younis, long queues formed from dawn, with little bread available.

The prospect of widespread food and water shortages looms large if the situation persists.

Shady al-Aqqad, one of the hundreds waiting for bread, voiced the concerns of many, fearing a complete scarcity of essential provisions.

US Sends Military Assets

Growing concerns over the potential escalation of the Israel-Palestine conflict are gripping the Middle East.

The United States has moved more military resources to the region while Israel continues its intense airstrikes on Gaza and other targets.

In neighboring Syria, Israeli missile strikes targeted Damascus and Aleppo international airports, causing civilian casualties and rendering the airports inoperable, according to Syrian state media.

On the other front, Israel claimed that it struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, and a soldier was hit by an anti-tank missile during cross-border clashes.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah group reported six of its fighters killed in this incident.

The United States is closely monitoring these developments.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, cautioning that the Lebanese people could be adversely affected if Lebanon gets drawn into the conflict.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has announced the deployment of additional military assets to the Middle East, with a focus on supporting Israel and bolstering US defense capabilities in the region.

This move follows what the US characterizes as recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces.

The reinforcements include a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and additional Patriot air defense missile system battalions.

Additional troops are also on standby.

The United States has been strengthening its military presence in the Middle East over the past few weeks, including deploying two aircraft carriers, support ships, and approximately 2,000 Marines.

Furthermore, the situation in Iraq is causing concern.

Drones and rockets targeted two military bases housing US forces last week, part of a series of attacks.

Iraqi militants have warned the US against intervening to support Israel against Iran-backed Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In a related development, the deadly explosion at Gaza’s Al-Ahli hospital on Tuesday is believed to have resulted from an errant rocket fired from Gaza, rather than an Israeli strike.

This conclusion aligns with assessments from Canada, the United States, and France.

Escalating Bombardment

Israeli aircraft targeted a compound located beneath a mosque in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank in an early Sunday strike.

The Israeli military claimed that this compound was being used by militants to organize attacks.

The Palestinian health ministry reported the killing of a fifth Palestinian in the West Bank overnight, bringing the total number of deaths there to 90 since the conflict began.

In the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, at least 11 Palestinians were reportedly killed in an Israeli strike, with reports of continued Israeli airstrikes in the southern city of Rafah.

The Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, called on Gazans to move southward for their safety.

He announced that Israel would continue its attacks on the area of Gaza City and intensify these operations.

In southern Lebanon, at least 27 people have been killed, with most being combatants, but at least four civilians, including a Reuters journalist, were also among the casualties.

Israel has issued evacuation orders for dozens of communities in northern areas, and thousands of Lebanese residents have fled border regions to seek refuge in the southern city of Tyre.

The Israeli defense ministry announced the evacuation of 14 additional communities in the area on Sunday, while Israel has pointed fingers at Lebanese group Hezbollah, accusing them of dragging Lebanon into the conflict.

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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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